BACKGROUND In Germany, the first outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza A/H5N1 occurred among wild birds on the island of Ruegen between February and April 2006. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of recommended protective measures and to measure H5N1-seroprevalence among personnel tasked with bird collection. METHODS Inclusion criteria of our study were participation in ...

The knowledge, attitude and practice on using personal protective equipment (PPE) of rattan craftsmen to protect themselves from health effect related to sulfur dioxide exposure in Thuong Hien trade village at Kienxuong district, Thaibinh province, Vietnam was conducted using cross-sectional analytic study. The rattan craftsmen (n=403) were interviewed by face to face questionnaire. The results...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the capability of accident and emergency (A&E) departments in six health regions of England to safely decontaminate casualties exposed to hazardous chemicals. METHODS In January 1999 a postal questionnaire was sent to the clinical director of all A&E departments in Trent, North and South Thames, South and West, North West and, Anglia and Oxford Health Regions. The quest...

(1) Background: To determine paramedics' frequency of contact with blood and other body fluids, as well as the analysis of knowledge of paramedics about blood-borne infections, their attitudes to patients infected with blood-borne viruses, and the post-exposure procedures implemented by paramedics; (2) Methods: An anonymous questionnaire among 190 paramedics working in various health care facil...

BACKGROUND There is limited research on preparation of health care workers for disasters. Prior research addressed systems-level responses rather than specific institutional and individual responses. METHODS An anonymous online survey of hospital employees, who were grouped into clinical and non-clinical staff, was conducted. The objective of this study was to compare perceptions of clinical ...

The goal of combined pharmacological approaches in the treatment of the acute radiation syndrome (ARS) is to obtain an effective therapy producing a minimum of undesirable side effects. This review summarizes important data from studies evaluating the efficacy of combining radioprotective agents developed for administration prior to irradiation and therapeutic agents administered in a post-irra...

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is the least desirable way to ensure workplace safety, and it is difficult to use consistently. Hard hats are different; they have cachet and are often worn even when they are not required. We investigated the history of this personal protective equipment to see if there were any lessons that could be applied to other forms of PPE. We learned that what makes ...

Experiments indicating the existence of a menstrual toxin responsible for some of the clinical features of preeclamptic and eclamptic toxemias of pregnancy, and of a protective factor capable of neutralizing this toxin in animal experiments and in human cases have been reported by Smith and Smith (l-3). The apparent success obtained in some of the clinical cases in which protective pseudoglobul...

Introduction: Radiation countermeasures are defined as use of an agent to minimize the deleterious effects of radiation therapy by administering the compound after the radiation exposure has occurred, regardless of toxicity. In spite of extensive study in this field, yet there is no suitable radioprotector introduced. In this study two naturally occurring antioxidants were stu...