ORU Fogar tackling the coronavirus
If, back in February the 10th, ORU Fogar campaigned to support the Chinese province of Hubei, since the COVID-19 pandemic globally spread, the network is fully dedicated to supporting the regions in the fight against coronavirus.
Firstly, considering that it is of the utmost importance to work with reliable information, ORU Fogar was dedicated to disseminating the recommendations of the World Health Organization. The recommendations and websites of regional governments that, like Catalonia and the Basque Country, had to face the epidemic before others and, thus, could be references, were also disseminated.
Secondly, a WHO course for the health sector was also disseminated. This is a training course for health workers and public health professionals, focused on infection prevention and control. It provided information on what health facilities must do to be prepared to respond to a coronavirus case.
At the same time was also published a manual for administering centres with people infected with the coronavirus. In it, WHO gave practical recommendations on how to establish a center for severe acute respiratory and a detection center in health care centers. This document provided guidelines, standards, and minimum requirements for operating severe acute respiratory infection treatment centers in low- and middle-income countries and resource-limited settings. Finally, among the ORU Fogar members, a protocol was distributed on how to act against the first cases of coronavirus and their first contacts. This is the identification and monitoring of cases and their close contacts in the general population, or restricted to nearby settings (such as homes, health care, settings, schools).
Beyond all this, the ORU Fogar network has been a space of mutual support at this difficult time. The network has been available to the regions in helping their respective citizens at the time of the alert. At the time this newsletter is published, ORU Fogar is focused on delivering a massive donation of medical supplies from the Chinese provinces to the Italian regions of Tuscany and Sicily.
ORU Fogar, finally, is committed to disseminating the work of the regions against the pandemic.
World Health Organization recommendations:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
Recommendations from the regional governments of Catalonia and the Basque Country:
http://web.gencat.cat/es/coronavirus/index.html
https://www.euskadi.eus/nuevo-coronavirus-covid-19/
Course for the health sector:
https://openwho.org/courses/COVID-19-IPC-EN
Manuel for administering a centre with people infected with COVID-19:
https://www.who.int/publications-detail/severe-acute-respiratory-infections-treatment-centre
Protocol for addressing the first cases:
