Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T01:33:29.616Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Are Belgian Senior Medical Students Ready to Deliver Basic Medical Care in Case of a H5N1 Pandemic?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Luc J.M. Mortelmans ,
Harald G. De Cauwer ,
Evi Van Dyck ,
Pieter Monballyu ,
Roel Van Giel  and
Ellen Van Turnhout
Luc J.M. Mortelmans*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Klina General Hospital, Brasschaat, Belgium
Harald G. De Cauwer
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Klina General Hospital, Brasschaat, Belgium
Evi Van Dyck
Affiliation:
Department of Internal Medicine, Klina General Hospital, Brasschaat, Belgium
Pieter Monballyu
Affiliation:
Department of Internal Medicine, Klina General Hospital, Brasschaat, Belgium
Roel Van Giel
Affiliation:
Department of Internal Medicine, Klina General Hospital, Brasschaat, Belgium
Ellen Van Turnhout
Affiliation:
Department of Internal Medicine, Klina General Hospital, Brasschaat, Belgium
*
Department of Emergency Medicine, AZ KLINA, Augustijnslei 100, B2930 Brasschaat, Belgium E-mail: luc.mortelmans@klina.be
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Medical care systems will be overwhelmed if a human H5N1 pandemic should occur. Several national disaster plans, including that of Belgium, focus on maximal treatment at home with senior medical students supporting frontline care. To evaluate the knowledge and preparedness of Belgian senior medical students, an e-mail survey of senior medical students (last two years of education) attending Flemish universities was conducted.

A total of 243 students (30%) replied. Only 21.8% of them were aware of the possibility of being involved in this planning. A total of 77.4% estimated H5N1 to be a possible threat to national health. Seventy percent of respon-dents reacted positively towards the idea of being involved in implementing primary care, and only 9.5% were absolutely opposed to the idea. A total of 82.3% would care for pandemic patients if necessary, but only 41.2% would do so if these patients were children. Only 18.9% estimated themselves to be suf-ficiently educated regarding H5N1. Ninety-one percent were convinced that care for H5N1-influenza patients should be incorporated into their regular curriculum. Several antiviral products were reported by the students to be effi-cient for treating H5N1, but only 34.6% correctly chose oseltamavir and/or zanamavir and 35.4% replied “I don't know”. A total of 95.5% correctly answered that the regular influenza vaccination doesn't protect against H5N1. The risk for human-to-human transmission was rated to be small by 50.6% (none 21%, high 27.6%). The human infection risk was rated to be small by 74.1% (none 1.6%, high 23%).

There is a high level of willingness to participate among senior medical students. However, in the case of pediatric patients they're more reserved. It would be useful to incorporate a focused session on preparedness in the regular teaching program. A legal base for their actions should also be provided. Ethical guidelines on rights and duties in case of a pandemic should be prepared by an international, multidisciplinary group of experts.

Keywords

H5N1avian influenzapreparednesspandemicmedical students
Type
Brief Report
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 24 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 438 - 442
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Gambotto, A, Barrat-Boyes, SM, de Jong, MD, Neuman, G, Kawaoka, Y: Human infection with highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus. Lancet 2008;371(9622):1464–1475.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2.Wright, PF: Vaccine preparedness—Are we ready for the next influenza pan-demic? N Engl J Med 2008;24(358):2540–2543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Jennings, LC, Monto, AS, Chan, PK, Szucs, TD, Nicholson, KG: Stockpiling prepandemic influenza vaccines: A new cornerstone of pandemic prepared-ness plans. Lancet Infect Dis 2008;8(10):650–658.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Bartlett, JG: Planning for avian influenza. Ann Int Med 2006;145(2):141–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia: Influenza preparedness plan before and during pandemic of the republic of Serbia; October 2005.Google Scholar
6.Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine: The coming influenza pandemic: A reason to prepare. Belg Tijdschr Gen 2005;61(22):1577–1582.Google Scholar
7.Starr, I: Influenza in 1918: Recollections of the epidemic in Philadelphia. Ann Int Med 2006;145(2):138–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8.World Health Organization: Clinical management of human infection with avian influenza A (H5N1) virus. Available at: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/guidelines/clinicalmanage07/en/index.html. Accessed 31 October 2007.Google Scholar
9.World Health Organization: Rapid advice guidelines on pharmacological man-agement of humans infected with avian influenza A (H5N1) virus May 2006. Available at: http://www.who.int/medicines/publications/WHO_PSM_PAR_ 2006.6.pdf. Accessed 28 September 2006.Google Scholar
10.Taubenberger, JK, Morens, DM, Fauci, AS: The next influenza pandemic, can it be predicted? JAMA 2007;297(18):2025–2027.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11.Wang, H, Feng, Z, Shu, YYu, H, Zhou, L, Zu, R et al. : Probable limited person-to-person transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in China. Lancet 2008;371(9622):1427–1434.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12.Van Genugten, ML, Heijnen, ML, Jager, JC: Pandemic Influenza and health-care demand in the Netherlands: Scenario analysis. Emerg Infect Dis 2003;9(5):531–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13. One-fifth of countries' population at risk. Available at http://www.france24.com/france24public/en/archives/news/science/20070717-WHO-bird-flu-pandemic. Accessed 10 August 2007.Google Scholar
14.Irvin, CB, Cindrich, L, Patterson, W, Southall, A: Survey of healthcare per-sonnel response during a potential avian influenza pandemic: Will they come to work? Prehosp Disaster Med 2008;23(4):328–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.De Cauwer, HG, Mortelmans, LJM, D'Orio, V: Are Belgian hospitals pre-pared for an H5N1 pandemic? Eur J Emerg Med 2007;14:204–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Wong, TW, Lee, CK, Tam, W, Lau, JT, Yu, TS, Lui, SF, for the Outbreak Study Group: Cluster of severe acute respiratory syndrome among medical students exposed to a single patient, Hong Kong. Emerg Infect Dis 2004;10(2):269–276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17.Torda, A: Ethical issues in pandemic planning. MJA 2006;185(10):s73–s76.Google ScholarPubMed
18.Sokol, DK: Virulent epidemics and scope of healthcare workers' duty of care. Emerg Infect Dis 2006;12(8):1238–1241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19.Ruderman, C., Tracy, CS, Bensimon, CM, Bernstein, M, Hawryluck, L, Shaul, RZ, Upshur, REG: On pandemics and the duty to care: Whose duty? Who cares? BMC Med Ethics 2006;7(1):E5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20.Ehrenstein, BP, Hanses, F, Salzberger, B: Influenza pandemic and profession-al duty: Family or patients first? A survey of hospital employees. BMC Publ Health 2006;6:311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar