Who and how to cure Covid. Here is the draft of the new pandemic plan
Choose who to treat, favoring, in case of insufficient resources, the patients who will benefit more from the therapies. Among other things, this is what we read in the draft of the new pandemic plan drawn up by the Ministry of Health. All the details
Choose who to treat by favoring, in case of insufficient resources, the patients who will be able to benefit more from the therapies; be able to guarantee a quick response, with a system capable of mobilizing to increase in a short time places in intensive care and the production of protective devices; focus on the supply of drugs, vaccines and the continuous training of doctors.
This is what emerges – according to Ansa – from the draft of the new pandemic plan 2021-23 which, after the controversy related to its non-renewal from 2006 to today.
THE DRAFT OF THE NEW 2021-2023 PANDEMIC PLAN
The draft, prepared by the Prevention Department of the Ministry of Health, will be submitted to the Regions and indicates a series of measures to deal with future, possible pandemics. But it is the reference to the ethical aspect that immediately sparked the discussion.
ETHICAL QUESTION: WHO TO TREAT?
The burning and ethically delicate issue is that of choosing who to treat: "Health care workers are always obliged, even during the crisis, to provide the best, most appropriate, reasonably possible care". However, it is specified, "when scarcity makes resources insufficient compared to needs, the principles of ethics can allow to allocate resources in order to provide unnecessary treatments, preferably to those patients who are more likely to benefit from them".
A concept that, read like this, could make one think of the lawfulness of abandonment behaviors of the most vulnerable patients, writes the Corriere della Sera : "In reality this passage brings back to the positions already expressed by the National Bioethics Committee, Federation of Medical Orders and Society Italian of anesthesia and resuscitation. Cinzia Caporale, a member of the CNB, explains it better: "It does not mean excluding entire categories of people from assistance, for example by age, but reiterating that it will be necessary to evaluate case by case, as always happens in health care, based on clinical criteria and in proportion with the expected results ".
THE STRATEGIES TO BE TAKEN IN THE FIELD
In 140 pages, however, the draft indicates, first of all, the operational strategies to be implemented: guaranteeing masks and protective devices, carrying out exercises but also developing the chain of command (who does what) and providing platforms "for rapid development anti-influenza antiviral drugs and pandemic vaccines against avian influenza viruses that prove capable of passing on to humans ". Furthermore, prevention and control measures are envisaged, as well as actions to monitor the implementation of the plan itself.
CRUCIAL: AVAILABILITY OF ANNUAL VACCINE SUPPLIES
It is also crucial to ensure the availability of annual supplies of seasonal influenza vaccine from national or international sources and to have and maintain a national / regional reserve of antiviral drugs during the inter-pandemic phase, defining the procedures for accessing the reserves. . Referring therefore to the regional plans, the draft underlines that these "must be implemented 120 days after the approval of the national plan and the state of implementation must be drawn up every year".
CORRECT COMMUNICATION IS ALSO IMPORTANT
Space in the Plan also for the role of correct communication, considered fundamental against fake news. Furthermore, “and this is true for the preparation for all pandemic events – warns the ministry – continuous training of health workers is needed in order to control respiratory infections and more”.
FINALLY, THE FUTURE STRATEGY IN THE NEW PANDEMIC PLAN
In short, Covid, unfortunately, teaches and suggests the future strategy: the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic, the document states, "confirms the unpredictability of these phenomena and that we must be as prepared as possible to implement all measures to contain them locally, nationally and globally ". For this reason it is necessary to have "preparation systems based on some common elements with respect to which to guarantee a widespread presence in the country and others that are more flexible to model according to the specificity of the pathogen that may emerge".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/chi-e-come-curare-covid-ecco-la-bozza-del-nuovo-piano-pandemico/ on Tue, 12 Jan 2021 09:04:19 +0000.