Page 161 - Timeliness of Infectious Disease Notification & Response Systems - Corien Swaan

Ebola preparedness among the curative and the public health sector 159
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Hours
Figure 3. Delay in decision referral to academic hospital – arrival hospital (hours) * Case no. 9 presented himself directly at the academic hospital.
Discussion
The intensified preparedness for patients with potential EVD amongst pub- lic health and curative stakeholders created a unique situation requiring not only close cooperation between these sectors, but also national coordination of the preparedness, to ensure timeliness and uniformity in the management of suspected patients. This study showed the need amongst stakeholders for a more coherent multisectoral preparedness at the regional level, as well as enhanced guidance from the national level. Interestingly, this approach also has been demonstrated of value in EVD response in low-resource settings such as Nigeria, where an emergency operation center involved a multisectoral and multidisciplinary approach (10). A WHO assessment on Ebola virus prepared- ness in WHO South-East-Asia region showed that multilevel and multisectoral collaboration and coordination structures were most advanced aspects in pre- paredness, as result from pandemic preparedness (11). Van Beneden et al also describes US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outreach to clinicians, including assisting clinicians managing patients with Ebola, sharing updated in- formation with the clinical community, and coordinating information sharing among clinicians managing patients with Ebola in the United States and Europe
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Case number