Every country has the scenario ready in the form of its own pandemic protocol. In the Netherlands, RIVM is responsible for this, together with the GGDs. As soon as there is a pandemic, the following happens here:
- There will be special quarantine places where infected patients are cared for
- There will be rules for the treatment of patients
- There will be criteria for who is admitted to hospital and who is not
- As soon as there is a vaccine, it is recorded who will be the first to receive it
Special team
A so-called Outbreak Management Team (OMT) is now working at RIVM. It contains scientists and specialized doctors who know a lot about combating infectious diseases. They discuss how to deal with an outbreak and advise the Ministry of Health on how to combat it.
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What is a pandemic?
It is the World Health Organization WHO that determines whether an outbreak of a virus disease meets the criteria of a pandemic. “It roughly means that we are dealing with a new virus that has not been circulating before, that people have no resistance to, and that has spread over more than one continent,” says Aura Timen, head of the National Coordination of Infectious Disease Control at RIVM .
“You should see it as a kind of code red: it is a signal to the world that everyone should pay attention and that hospitals must prepare for a large number of patients. The WHO calls out a pandemic when there is a feeling that spread is no longer against “You can try to contain an epidemic. If it’s a pandemic it’s too late for that, it’s mainly about taking care of patients.”
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Mexican flu
The influenza A virus (H1N1), better known as the Mexican flu, was the last pandemic. In 2009-2010 there were more than 17,000 deaths that were directly attributed to the virus. In the Netherlands there were 60 deaths.
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The Netherlands could close certain places and regions, but Timen does not expect it to come to that. “That is not the way in which we deal with diseases in the Netherlands. In any case, it is not something that we have in the scripts, it has not occurred in fifty years.”
Recording in your own region
Hospitals take into account the admission of infected patients and will now also prepare for multiple admissions simultaneously. Patients are usually admitted to the region where they live.
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Each safety region must have a quarantine facility with room for 30-60 patients during an outbreak, depending on the population of the region. The possible locations are mapped by the safety region, the GGD and the medical assistance organization in the region.
Quarantine places
It is not expected that many quarantine sites will be used in the event of an outbreak of the corona virus, says Henriette Bertram of GGD Hollands Midden, because people without symptoms do not have to be in quarantine.
“They are instructed to be alert to respiratory complaints, to measure their temperature once a day and to report their health situation to the monitoring body on a daily basis.”
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