jwnickerson.bsky.social
Humanitarian Representative to Canada for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (@MSF.ca) 🌎
Respiratory Therapist 🫁
Trail runner and adventurer🏃♂️
Public health/infectious diseases/health systems researcher focusing on older adults ☣️
306 posts
15,425 followers
722 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
I knew someone who made one of these into a very nice and very niche lamp, using the plastic casing and metal stand
comment in response to
post
Yes there is a global process led by WHO involving their influenza collaborating centres and other experts that makes recommendations on vaccine composition for different hemispheres. Canada’s NACI generally adopts these recommendations and provides Canadian guidance on vaccine composition and use.
comment in response to
post
Happy to chat about this any time.
comment in response to
post
Security of supply is, of course, the issue of the day and a different story.
comment in response to
post
For a country the size of Canada it almost certainly doesn’t make sense to produce all the vaccines we need here - many vaccine markets, globally, work well with reasonable prices for things like measles, DTaP, etc. via international large producers. There is market mapping of this.
comment in response to
post
@jrobson.bsky.social I haven’t looked at import/export economic data for vaccines, but there is domestic influenza vax manufacturing capacity via the GSK facility in Ste-Foy Quebec, and a Sanofi plant is scheduled to open north of Toronto in ~2027.
comment in response to
post
In short, the public manufacturing facility has produced precisely 0 doses of vaccine. We wrote about this in the Montreal Gazette last year, and have made many suggestions on what Canada could be producing to fill gaps in the market. www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/arti...
comment in response to
post
Followed! Come on over, @uoftpandemics.bsky.social - lots of great people here on IDSky and MedSky
comment in response to
post
We actually have 2 approved vaccines for Ebola-Zaire (This is the most common species of Ebola that causes most outbreaks)! The first approved vaccine has been used in multiple outbreaks now, and we have good safety and effectiveness data, and also two approved therapeutics.
comment in response to
post
Marburg outbreaks are notably rare, though appear to be increasing in frequency (or at least our awareness of them is) - this is the second outbreak in the last 6 months.
Outbreaks tend to be small, and though therapeutics and vaccines have been developed, none are approved. IDSky 🧪
comment in response to
post
Manitoba is doing good, here. As a ceasefire takes effect, after more than 46,000 have been killed and more than 100,000 injured, this is only the beginning of addressing the massive humanitarian, medical, and psychological needs.
comment in response to
post
This war has had a devastating impact on people in Gaza. The health system has been systematically destroyed and dismantled. People have few options. As a ceasefire hopefully takes hold in the coming hours, we need a massive humanitarian scale-up to come in, and for patients to be medevac-ed out.
comment in response to
post
Manitoba has generously agreed to provide urgent, life changing surgery to two patients from Gaza and the local community is generously supporting their families. A real act of humanity worth celebrating.
But we need to keep perspective: 12,000 patients in need of medevac remain trapped in Gaza.
comment in response to
post
We have been calling for an urgent scale-up in the humanitarian response in Eastern DRC for more than a year, as more than 6 million people have been forcibly displaced by fighting. There are massive gaps in operational capacity and humanitarian funding that need to be addressed immediately.
comment in response to
post
We have a few studies in the works to better understand the needs and clinical course of hospitalized older adults in humanitarian crises. Another major area of work that's needed is to develop validated public health indicators and needs assessment tools for this population.
comment in response to
post
Many studies and indicators use arbitrary age cut-offs that are heterogeneous and ultimately unhelpful. It is not particularly useful to aggregate all adults >50 years, for example. There are significant differences between a 50 year old and an 80 year old, that are not being captured. It's ageism.
comment in response to
post
But one of the big takeaways from looking at the emergency public health literature through this lens is simply that most studies do not adequately disaggregate their data to actually understand the health needs of, and health impacts on, older adults during humanitarian emergencies.
comment in response to
post
There are several gaps in our knowledge, and we're continuing to work on these. I am interested in building a better understanding of the clinical course of older adults with infectious diseases (Ebola, cholera, etc.) but also the effectiveness of medical countermeasures in this population.
comment in response to
post
Several studies identified specific risk factors for developing mental health disorders among older adults in wars and other crises: living alone, having memory and concentration problems, having feelings of being left out, facing difficulty getting food and medicine, having a chronic disease, etc.
comment in response to
post
The studies that specifically evaluated malnutrition among older adults found important overlaps between chronic diseases and malnutrition. Older adults reported more barriers accessing food than younger adults. Dental diseases are more prevalent among older adults which contributed to malnutrition.
comment in response to
post
Non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, were identified as major health hazards in seven studies.
NCDs are a growing area of focus for humanitarian organizations, & we need to view these as urgent non-negotiables.
comment in response to
post
Mobility is obviously impaired by wars and natural disasters. For example, one study found that during the war in Iraq, injuries from falls among older adults occurred more frequently across all age categories due to a deterioration in infrastructure, such as collapsed sidewalks.
This makes sense.
comment in response to
post
Here are some findings that I found interesting and important:
We need to improve how we address the inaccessibility of health and social services in emergencies for people with mobility-related disabilities. Reaching health facilities, water/food distributions, etc. are all mobility-dependent.
comment in response to
post
There's significant heterogeneity in the populations, crises, contexts, settings, etc in the studies we identified. We've pulled out common themes and interesting findings, but this work is only a starting point for improving an understanding of the health needs of older adults in emergencies.
comment in response to
post
We reviewed 56 studies in our review covering a wide range of crises and health issues. It's important to not try and group diverse contexts, crises, and populations together so we've tried to avoid this, but it's also important to try and give a general overview of what health needs are identified.
comment in response to
post
The impact of this is that many health services aren't specifically designed to meet their needs. Illnesses more prevalent in older adults are not necessarily prioritized, health services are not accessible or age-appropriate for older adults with diverse health concerns, and more.
comment in response to
post
Second is that older adults are often systematically excluded as a priority population in humanitarian health responses - this is straight-up ageism. Older adults are systematically excluded from a lot of data collection and analyses, meaning we have little information on their needs or outcomes.