Background and Objectives Previous studies have shown substantial geographical variation in blood donation within developed countries. To understand this issue better, we identified community ...characteristics associated with blood donor rates in German municipalities in an ecological analysis.
Materials and Methods We calculated an aggregated rate of voluntary blood donors from each of 1533 municipalities in south‐west Germany in 2007 from a database of the German Red Cross Blood Service. A multiple linear regression model estimated the association between the municipality‐specific donor rate and several community characteristics. Finally, a spatial lag regression model was used to control for spatial autocorrelation that occurs when neighbouring units are related to each other.
Results The spatial lag regression model showed that a relatively larger population, a higher percentage of inhabitants older than 30 years, a higher percentage of non‐German citizens and a higher percentage of unemployed persons were associated with lower municipality‐specific donor rates. Conversely, a higher donor rate was correlated with higher voter turnout, a higher percentage of inhabitants between 18 and 24 years and more frequent mobile donation sites.
Conclusions Blood donation appears to be a highly clustered regional phenomenon, suggesting the need for regionally targeted recruiting efforts and careful consideration of the value of mobile donation sites. Our model further suggests that municipalities with a decreasing percentage of 18‐ to 24‐year‐olds and an increasing percentage of older inhabitants may experience substantial declines in future blood donations.
BACKGROUND: Bacterial sepsis following whole blood–derived platelet (WBP) transfusion has remained a substantial patient risk, primarily due to a lack of practical and effective means to limit or ...detect bacterial contamination. We describe the risk of reported septic reactions to WBPs and the introduction of prestorage‐pooled whole blood–derived platelets (PSPs) collected using initial sample diversion and cultured for bacterial contamination.
STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Product qualification and quality control (QC) testing with the Acrodose PL system (Pall Medical) were evaluated in four regional blood centers. Bacterial contamination risk was assessed by review of reported septic transfusion reactions to WBPs and by aerobic QC culture of leukoreduced PSPs utilizing automated microbial detection system cultures (BacT/ALERT 3D, bioMérieux).
RESULTS: Before implementing PSPs (January 2003‐December 2006), we distributed 2,535,043 WBP units and received 20 reports of septic reactions including 2 fatalities (7.9 per million 1:126,752 reactions and 0.79 per million 1:1,267,522 fatalities). In October 2006, PSPs were effectively implemented with a product qualification success rate of 99.6 percent and a mean yield of 4.0 × 1011 platelets (PLTs) per pool. Whole blood collection sets with sample diversion technology were introduced during the operational trial and decreased the rate of confirmed‐positive bacterial culture of PSPs from 2111 (1:474) to 965 (1:1036) per million (odds ratio, 0.46; 95% confidence interval, 0.22‐0.95). No septic reactions to PSPs were reported (25,936 PSP units distributed).
CONCLUSION: Sample diversion and bacterial culture are effective methods to reduce bacterial risk with WBP transfusion. Bacterial contamination of PSPs was assessed at 5.8‐fold our current rate for apheresis PLTs utilizing comparable culture protocols.
This article analyzes the evolution in international law of the obligation to search for and return the remains of forcibly disappeared and missing persons. Receiving the remains of forcibly ...disappeared and missing persons is one of the primary needs of their families, who bring the issue to international courts and non-judicial mechanisms. This obligation has been incrementally recognized and developed by different human rights courts, which have included the obligation to search for and return the remains of disappeared persons in their remedies. In parallel to the development of the obligation by international courts, the international community has begun to become more involved in assisting in return of the remains of forcibly disappeared and missing persons to their families.
Two decades ago, only a handful of NGOs operated legally in China. Today the sector is thriving. Even with the threat of new restrictions under the Xi Jinping government, private social initiative ...appears poised for even greater expansion in the future. To fully appreciate the significance of these recent developments, this essay presents a wider view of China's long history of civic organisation, comparing the contemporary resurgence of NGOs to the historical development of private charities in the Qing and Republican periods. It finds similarities in the motivations of organisers and donors, as well as in the relationship between civic organisations and the state, but sees other developments, such as the capitalisation of the NGO sector and its ability to mobilise public opinion, as substantively new.
Humanitarian forensic science Cordner, Stephen
Australian journal of forensic sciences,
11/2018, Letnik:
50, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Humanitarian forensic science is the application of the knowledge and skills of forensic medicine and science to humanitarian action, especially following conflicts or disasters. It sprouted from the ...experience of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team and was shaped by International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law. It has been further developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross, especially since 2003. Since then, there have been many lessons learned. Forensic science has a humanitarian application as well as being a tool for justice. Identification of the dead is an essential component of the proper involvement of a forensic professional in dealing with human remains. Managing large numbers of deaths following a disaster or in a post-conflict environment, from the point of view of human identification, is a completely different exercise compared with everyday work. Meaningful forensic action in large-scale post-conflict or post-disaster settings may not be the exclusive preserve of forensic experts. Improving the capacity of a forensic system to identify the dead requires improvement of the forensic system generally.
On 3 October 2015, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Trauma Centre in Kunduz, Afghanistan was bombed during a US–Afghan joint military operation to retake the city. Even before that night, attacks ...on health-care facilities in war zones were already a worrying trend and a major concern for humanitarian organizations. Such attacks have led both MSF and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to launch campaigns1 addressing the need for greater protection of the medical mission in situations of armed conflict. Nonetheless, the scale and specific context of the attack on the Kunduz Trauma Centre have given rise to various specific investigations2 and provoked many more questions that this article will explore. The article will delve into the “many mistakes” scenario that has been presented by the US investigation in order to critically analyze whether these mistakes may originate from either incorrect or biased interpretations or implementation of international humanitarian law.
Résumé
La communication est l’un des principaux outils de lutte contre les épidémies de maladie à virus Ebola (MVE), pour deux raisons. D’abord, parce que l’application stricte des mesures de ...prévention véhiculées par la communication est le meilleur outil pour enrayer toute épidémie, ensuite, parce que lors de la vingtaine d’épidémies connues les équipes soignantes se sont fréquemment heurtées à l’incrédulité, voire à l’hostilité des populations. Pourtant, une revue de la communication impulsée depuis 2013 par l’OMS et déployée sur toute l’Afrique subsaharienne montre une série d’erreurs stratégiques et de réalisation. Lors de l’épidémie de 2013–2016 en Afrique de l’Ouest, la même communication, indifférenciée, a été proposée pour les pays épidémiques et ceux qui ne l’étaient pas. Une interdiction généralisée de la chasse a été promue, alors que 2 % des habitants d’Afrique subsaharienne vivent dans l’aire d’extension des chauves-souris réservoirs pour le virus Ebola et qu’il n’est pas prouvé que la chasse soit une voie majeure d’infection. En outre, la diffusion de messages inappropriés a contribué à jeter le trouble et à semer l’anxiété. Pour être efficace, la communication sur la MVE devrait être différenciée et s’appuyer sur des explications de la maladie, sa transmission et sa prévention.
The First World War cost over 60,000 Australians killed and 156,000 wounded. Little thought was given at the outset of the War to how information about casualties could be communicated quickly and ...sensitively to an anxious home front or the immense and lasting psychological damage that such carnage would produce. With the war over, efforts turned to a systematic attempt to find, identify and properly bury Australia's missing war dead. Not only was this effort motivated by the moral imperative 'To sanctify and hallow the memory' of this sacrifice, but also with a growing awareness of the importance in healing the mental anguish that would be the lasting legacy of the First World War. This paper looks in brief at the story of the effort to ease the psychological suffering of bereaved families, an effort that though at times beset by scandal and incompetence, is one that continues for the same motives to the present day.
Gerald Steinacher's revealing study of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) constitutes an important addition to our understanding of the successes and failings of the world's ...preeminent humanitarian organization during World War II. The work covers a critical period in the ICRC's history as the organization faced an existential challenge related to its actions and inactions during the war, including the ICRC's silence during the Holocaust, increased competition for the reins of power from national Red Cross committees, and a desperate effort to reclaim its humanitarian reputation after 1944. Despite the ICRC's early knowledge of Nazi mass murder, the leadership and committee as whole, with some dissenting voices, pursued a pragmatic political course governed by realist policy considerations and made a conscious decision not to publicly expose or condemn Nazi genocide in a pivotal meeting in October 1942.
