verall strategy and objective of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day The overall objective of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day is to support national activities aimed at raising awareness concerning the proper use of antibiotics so as to maintain the efficacy of antibiotics and avoid the eme...rgence of resistant bacteria. To this aim, ECDC has decided to produce basic campaign communication materials that communicators in EU Member States can use in devising and implementing national campaigns. At the same time, a dedicated website will be launched in July 2008. These materials aim to provide a visual identity to the campaigns across the EU member states and make the messages more recognisable and consistent, thus memorable to the target audience. The choice of supporting visuals responds to the need of making the messages accessible to parents and young people, who represent the main target for the 2008 campaign.
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Recommendations from the American Nurses Association/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Workgroup on the Role of Registered Nurses in Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Practices
The Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship provides a framework for antibiotic stewardship for outpatient clinicians and facilities that routinely provide antibiotic treatment. This report augments existing guidance for other clinical settings. In 2014 and 2015, respectively, CDC release...d the Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs and the Core Elements of Antibiotic Stewardship for Nursing Homes. Antibiotic stewardship is the effort to measure and improve how antibiotics are prescribed by clinicians and used by patients. Improving antibiotic prescribing involves implementing effective strategies to modify prescribing practices to align them with evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis and management.
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March 2020
This document provides a high-level mapping of outbreak stages with guidance on how to time the minimum uptake of different interventions that have been recommended by Africa CDC, driven by evidence and science.
This document aims to provide advice on the use of cloth face masks and sterilisation of respirators and surgical masks as an alternative in healthcare settings with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases if there is a shortage of specialised surgical masks and respirators.
This document provides guidance to EU/EEA Member States on environmental cleaning in healthcare and non-healthcare settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This document aims to support public health preparedness planning and response activities on the safe handling of bodies of deceased persons with suspected or confirmed COVID-19: at the site of death, during transport, storage and preparation before burial/cremation, and during burial/cremation.
The purpose of this document is to provide interim guidance for setting up of quarantine facilities
Accessed: 16.04.2020
This document aims to help EU/EEA public health authorities in the tracing and management of persons, including healthcare workers, who had contact with COVID-19 cases. It outlines the key steps of contact tracing, including contact identification, listing and follow-up, in the context of the COVID-...19 response.
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This document provides guidance to African Union Member States based on a specific request from Member States for a checklist/guidance of the required personal protective equipment (PPE) needed by healthcare workers and care givers for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This document ...has been synthesised from currently available evidence (1-6), with consideration to the African context, and as such, can be adapted to the country context.
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This document simplifies the WHO guidance on severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) treatment centres and is meant to be accessible to healthcare workers, policymakers and others who want
a quick overview of the key requirements for a COVID-19 isolation centre either within an existing facility ...or as a standalone centre.
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It is intended for use among clinicians taking care of moderate to severe COVID-19 cases.
The COVID-19 outbreak has brought with it the need for improved critical care for patients who develop severe disease. The majority of COVID-19 patients present with mild to moderate illness, 15% develop sever...e illness and about 5% develop critical conditions needing intensive care unit (ICU) care, requiring noninvasive or invasive ventilation
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The purpose of this document is to provide guidance on the use of pooled sample testing strategy in coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
testing laboratories of the African Union Member States for scaling up SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid testing capacity with the available resources. The current document descr...ibes the effect of factors such as the prevalence of COVID-19 in the population to be tested, the homogeneity of pools, and the sensitivity of the molecular test in optimal pool size determination. It also highlights the importance of monitoring the prevalence of COVID-19 in a population to be tested and proper validation of the test, to limit the potential for false-negative results. Validation studies to determine the optimal pool size by testing laboratories are recommended as the optimum approach. A safe, simple ‘two-stage pooling’ option has been indicated in this guidance to be used by laboratories until such validation can be achieved.
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These guidelines outline the minimum operational guidance for infection prevention and control (IPC) in ambulances transferring suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients. Ambulance staff should be trained in the procedures outlined here as part of their induction and prior to starting work. They are ...to be supported by their operating organization with available personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning materials. These guidelines are subject to adaptation according to the specific operational context. Standard infection control precautions must be used with all patients.
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MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 4 December 2020. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6949e2
This joint ECDC-European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) document aims to support Member States in determining a coordinated approach to reduce the risks related to the movement of people by air within and between the EU/EEA countries and the UK in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, noting th...at the impact of quarantine and testing is likely to vary according to levels of ongoing community transmission, and in the context of ECDC’s current advice that non-essential travel should be avoided during the end-of year festive period
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August 2020, The Africa Joint Continental Strategy for COVID-19 is underpinned by the need to limit transmission, prevent deaths and reduce associated harms. Participation by African nations in clinical trials is an essential step to ensure that sufficient data is generated on the safety and efficac...y of the most promising vaccine candidates among the region’s populations.
While current COVID-19 clinical trial activity on the continent is limited, Africa has substantial experience and capabilities to conduct clinical trials for preventative vaccines across a range of diseases, and many organizations on the continent are working tirelessly to help prepare additional trials on potential COVID-19 vaccines. As the number of candidate vaccines in the development pipeline continues to increase, it will be important for organizations responsible for managing clinical trials in the region to partner with vaccine developers to identify potential and appropriate trial locations, provide support to remove any critical obstacles impeding commencement and progress of trials, and to provide oversight ensuring that trials are conducted safely and ethically.
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Taking the whole of Africa approach to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic has and will continue to require coordinated efforts from multiple stakeholders from across the continent. Africa CDC would like to acknowledge the deep partnership and continued support of AUDA-NEPAD, AVAREF, WHO AFRO, the Bill a...nd Melinda Gates Foundation and the Mastercard Foundation. These partners have helped to shape and drive the continent’s strategic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and have offered support to ensure the continent receives a fair and equitable share of the COVID-19 vaccine without delay.
We look forward to continuing and deepening our partnership for the benefit of the public health of Africa.
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