Tag: harm reduction

Event Medical Media Scan – December 2021 Edition

Posted on by admin in COVID, Harm Reduction, mass gathering, Media Scan, medical direction

Foreword

As 2021will soon enter into the history books, we firstly wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2022! We look forward to meeting with all of you in person again soon!

COVID continues to dominate the headline. Canada’s first locally made COVID vaccine (Medicago’s plant-based virus-like particle vaccine) appears ready for debut. Canada was also chosen to be one of the three manufacturing sites for Merck’s Molnupiravir,  an oral anti-viral drugs that may be effective against COVID. As usual, we have some webinar and resources you may find interesting.

New Zealand became the first jurisdiction in the world to fully legalize drug testing, and Germany is contemplating the same upon the new government being sworn into office. Should Canada do the same?

On the issue of mass gathering and harm reduction, an Australian survey study indicated some festival goers chose to ingest quantity of drugs earlier or in larger doses, fearful of police and legal action. What are the strategies to mitigate the risks? 

Separately, a US news organization conducted an investigative piece on sexual assaults at a particular music festival. What can be done to make the events safer for everyone?

COVID webinars

COVID-19 Vaccine for Pediatric Use in Canada

Date: Monday, December 13, 2021 1200-1315 EST

Host: National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases, University of Manitoba

https://nccid.ca/webcast/covid-19-vaccine-for-pediatric-use-in-canada/

Expert Q&A with Public Health, Primary Care, Vaccine, Epidemiology, and Lab Specialists

Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Host: Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia

https://ubccpd.ca/learn/learning-activities/course?eventtemplate=238-covid19-update-expert-qa-with-public-health-primary-care-vaccine-epidemiology-and-lab-specialists

COVID CLINICAL RESOURCES

[Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table] Clinical Practice Guideline Summary: Recommended Drugs and Biologics in Adult Patients with COVID-19
https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/sciencebrief/clinical-practice-guideline-summary-recommended-drugs-and-biologics-in-adult-patients-with-covid-19-version-5-0/

[IDSA] Updates in COVID-19 Treatment and Antibody-Based Prevention
https://www.idsociety.org/multimedia/clinician-calls/cdcidsa-covid-19-clinician-call-updates-in-covid-19-treatment-and-antibody-based-prevention/

Six different COVID-19 boosters induce variable immune response
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/936564

MASS GATHERING

New Zealand to enshrine protections for pill testing in ‘world first’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/01/new-zealand-to-enshrine-protections-for-pill-testing-in-world-first

The Traffic Light Coalition agrees to the legalisation of cannabis products as outlined in the new Coalition Agreement
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=04cc4dc7-87c9-4ed4-82fd-1e125cca6d47

Police presence at music festivals can lead to ‘panic overdoses’ of drugs
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/19/police-presence-at-music-festivals-can-lead-to-panic-overdoses-of-drugs

‘A sexual predator’s paradise.’ Investigation of Faster Horses music festival uncovers 30 reported sexual assaults
https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/11/a-sexual-predators-paradise-investigation-of-faster-horses-music-festival-uncovers-30-reported-sexual-assaults.html

Image Credit

Adobe Stock Images

Event Medical Media Scan – March 2020 Edition

Posted on by admin in Harm Reduction, Media Scan, Privacy

News

The City of Edmonton recently passed Bylaw 19166, regulating the Electronic Dance Music events in the City. 

Why it matters? Edmonton is one of the first jurisdictions to create bylaws regulating EDMs (for example, requiring a medical plan and chill zone as mandatory conditions). Other cities will likely monitor the development, and may decide to implement similar bylaws in their home jurisdiction. 

http://sirepub.edmonton.ca/sirepub/agdocs.aspx?doctype=agenda&itemid=79301

[UK] Revealed: how drugs giants can access your health records
“Truly anonymous data – utterly incapable of being traced back to an individual – is very hard to achieve, given that there is so much information about us in the public domain and held by companies such as Facebook and Google … In fact, it’s almost impossible for record-level data (where each line of the dataset corresponds to an individual) to be made truly anonymous.”

Why it matters? This is the perfect example (and followup) to our social media/privacy links in our February edition of the media scan. Breadcrumbs across different profiles/platforms may be enough to give a determined person enough to piece together the information beyond what may be intended.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/08/fears-over-sale-anonymous-nhs-patient-data

Research articles

[British Columbia Medical Journal] Drug-induced psychosis and neurological effects following nitrous oxide misuse: A case report

https://www.bcmj.org/articles/drug-induced-psychosis-and-neurological-effects-following-nitrous-oxide-misuse-case-report

[Canadian Medical Association Journal] Five things to know about …: Atrial fibrillation in athletes


https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/192/2/E40.full.pdf

Coronavirus – COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2

The novel coronavirus has been dominating headlines across the globe for the last few months. You might be wondering how does that relate to event medicine?  Beyond the obvious as COVID-19 becomes a global health matter, many countries have or are considering the cancellation of mass gathering events to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2. This could have an impact to the traditionally busy Summer music festival scene across the Northern Hemisphere.

The World Health Organization has created 3 separate and free online courses for those wanting to learn more about COVID-19. Once you have an openWHO account, you can enroll in any or all of the courses below. You will also find additional courses on communicable diseases that you may find interesting.

Emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV: methods for detection, prevention, response and control

https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-to-ncov

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)


https://openwho.org/courses/COVID-19-IPC-EN

Doctors look to HIV and Ebola drugs for coronavirus cure
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/feb/20/doctors-hiv-ebola-drugs-coronavirus-cure-covid-19

‘Nobody talks about it because everyone is on it’: Adderall presents esports with an enigma
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/esports/2020/02/13/esports-adderall-drugs/

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