Need for more proactive use of pharmacists in the COVID-19 pandemic following lessons learnt from the Great East Japan Earthquake

Information-seeking behaviour of community pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic: an ecological study

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the information-seeking behaviour of pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic and its relation to COVID-19 and related infections and deaths within the local prefecture.

DESIGN

Ecological study.

SETTING

Japan-47 prefectures.

METHODS

The number of accesses to a Japanese web page established by the Pharmacy Informatics Group to disseminate information about infection control and the number of infections and deaths in 47 prefectures were investigated from 6 April to 30 September 2020 using the access information on the web page and publicly available information.

RESULTS

During the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the total number of accesses was 226 130 (range: 10 984-138 898 per month), the total number of infections was 78 761 (1738-31 857) and the total number of deaths was 1470 (39-436). The correlation between the total number of accesses and that of infections per 100 000 individuals in 47 prefectures was r=0.72 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.83, p<0.001), and between the total number of accesses and deaths per 100 000 individuals in 47 prefectures was r=0.44 (95% CI 0.17 to 0.65, p=0.002).

CONCLUSIONS

The information-seeking behaviour of community pharmacists correlated positively with infection status within the community.

Exploration of the primary needs of health care services for earthquake victims in the west of Iran

BACKGROUND

Natural disasters always have significant effects on social infrastructures, living conditions, and health care systems. This study aims to explain the needs of victims in the west of Iran for primary health care services.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This thematic content analysis and qualitative study was done from September 2020 to June 2021 in the west of Iran. Participants were selected using purposive sampling method. The data were extracted through semi-structured interviews with 17 earthquake victims and then examined through thematic content analysis.

RESULTS

By analyzing and coding the data, the primary needs of victims post an earthquake in the west of Iran were classified into four main categories) health services, mental health, social health, and health management (and 14 subcategories.

CONCLUSION

Regarding the primary needs (health services, mental health, social health, and health management), establishing a headquarters to meet the immediate and special health care needs seems to be required. It was recommended to create institutions for monitoring and supporting the health care needs at the level of the community and even policymaking, as well as guiding earthquake-stricken areas such as the eco-village.

Disaster medical education for pharmacy students using video recordings of practical disaster drills

INTRODUCTION

This study created video-based educational materials for pharmacists' disaster response using video recordings of disaster drills to evaluate the feasibility of online education for teaching evacuation shelter management.

METHODS

Video materials were created from an actual disaster drill held at the Hirakata campus of Setsunan University and were provided to second-year pharmacy students as part of their classes. We conducted a questionnaire survey before and after the video intervention to evaluate participants' attitudes toward providing support during disasters, awareness of pharmacists' role in disaster relief, and willingness to participate in disaster drills.

RESULTS

A comparison of the pre- and post-intervention questionnaire results showed that the intervention enhanced participants' understanding of pharmacists' role in disaster medicine. The factor analysis, cluster analysis, and the amount of change showed that the video materials vividly conveyed the confusion of a disaster to the participants and helped them imagine experiencing and responding to a disaster.

CONCLUSION

The findings showed the feasibility of using video-based educational materials to vividly convey the chaos that challenges medical personnel during disaster-response efforts. This method provides a safe way to prepare students who might be called upon to work in emergency conditions and stimulate interest in disaster medicine. Ideally, this and similar interventions will become part of an extensive toolbox of empirically-based disaster preparedness educational materials.

Mutual Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Recent Earthquakes: A Scoping Review of the Lessons Learned

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to review the articles dealing with the mutual impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the recent earthquakes to elicit the various scopes of the lessons learned including the challenges, the successful measures, and the recommendations.

METHODS

To detect the relevant studies published between February 1, 2020, and June 9, 2021, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched. Having considered specific inclusion/exclusion criteria, 18 studies were included.

RESULTS

Seven major earthquakes have occurred concurrently or before the pandemic era in Albania, Croatia, Haiti, Great East Japan, Mexico, Nepal, and Utah. Thematic analysis revealed 5 themes for the "challenges" (management inefficiency, increased life-threatening, economic, socially related, and dual psychological challenges); 4 themes for the "efficient response measures" (health-care services measures, government measures, community-based cooperative activities, and disaster management response); and 3 major themes with 7 sub-themes for the "recommendations" including "the mitigation phase" (identifying probable natural disasters), "the preparedness phase" (preparing necessary equipment), and "the response phase" (mental care response measures, health-care-related COVID-19 measures, economic improvement measures, recognizing community-based capabilities, and government-related boosting measures).

CONCLUSIONS

It is suggested that these scopes of the mutual impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the earthquakes be studied in systematic reviews.

A case study of complex disasters within the resilience framework in Zagreb, Croatia: Two earthquakes in one pandemic

This paper is an analysis of complex crisis management and the importance of resilience on the example of co-occurring disasters. A resilience framework model was analyzed based on epidemiologic data and the interplay of several disasters; the COVID-19 pandemic and two 2020 Zagreb, Croatia earthquakes. A dose-response principle may be applied to a complex crisis scenario, within a resilience-vulnerability framework. The available data present the concept of balance between vulnerability and resilience of the population affected by complex crises as well as possible adaptation mechanisms. Multiple disasters that last for a prolonged period reduce the populations' resilience and increase the risk of the next crisis becoming a disaster as well. Such complex disasters should not be approached by multiple risk management protocols, but rather by a single, multilayered protocol. Health policies that predict the possible effects of complex disasters on health risk management need to provide measures to maintain and promote resilience instead of collapse. These is a clear need to adopt green environmental policies, reduce socioeconomic inequality, train volunteer managers during crises, introduce timely evidence-informed policies and transfer new research and innovations in society rapidly.