To see an update of the world pattern of Coronavirus spread, see the following link.
As the impact on the world of the Covid-19 tide unfolds, if you are wondering about the worldwide palliative care response, please go to this link.
https://www.thewhpca.org/covid-19/resources.
Triaging of scarce medical resources tends to happen in our medical environments even when times are good. It’s just that it’s not quite so obvious. For example, when there are numbers of people on a heart transplant waiting list, who is allocated the next donor heart?
Fortunately, many minds have turned their attention to this complexity in the past, so we have some thinking to guide us. Thank you to the Worldwide Hospice Care Network for the following link.
https://aphn.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/nejmp2005689.pdf
It’s an anxious time, as we consider what the emergence of Covid-19 will do in India. There are three concerns:
- this country with its massive population, limited social resources and practical barriers to social distancing including communities who live below the poverty line, will struggle with the disease burden.
- due to stretched capacity in other countries, particularly with ventilators and respiratory equipment, there will be either a lack of capacity for rich nations to respond or a reluctance to do so.
- the country could experience second, third and fourth waves, which will threaten to infect previously unaffected populations.
This will be replicated in other large countries in the world that live in poverty. For example, the favelas of South America.