A new collaborative care approach toward hepatitis C elimination in marginalized populations.

BACKGROUND: Treating marginalized populations with HCV infection for elimination is faced with the challenge for the integration of HCV screening service offered for patients often moving across multiple settings. We envisaged a novel collaborative care approach to identify to what extent HCV patients overlapped between and within these multiple institutions and reported the findings of treatment coverage of these marginalized populations after HCV care cascades. METHODS: We enrolled 7765 patients residing in the Changhua County, Taiwan offered with HCV screening from correctional institutions, HIV clinics, methadone clinics, and the existing HIV surveillance program (four subgroups including police-arrested people, probationers, non-injection drug user, and high-risk behavior people) between 2019 and 2020. The collaborative care and information were integrated through a teamwork of gastroenterologists, psychologists, infectious disease specialists, and nursing coordinators under the auspices of local health authority. RESULTS: The overall participation rate in HCV screening was 92.65% (7194/7765). The prevalence rate was the highest in methadone clinics (90.17%) followed by correctional institutions (37.67%), HIV clinics (34.60%), and the surveillance program (18.14%). We found 25.41% (77/303) of methadone clinic patients, 17.65% (129/731) of HIV clinic patients, and various proportions for 44.09% (41/93) of deferred prosecuted or probationers under surveillance program were also recruited into other settings. Individuals' patient flow within setting was more frequent than that between setting. After calibrating the overlap of patient flow, a total of 1700 anti-HCV positives out of 4074 after screening were traced with available follow-up information to complete 92.52% treatment coverage of 1177 RNA-positives (77.23%) diagnosed from 1524 undergoing RNA testing with similar findings across multiple settings. CONCLUSION: A new collaborative integrated care was adopted for elucidating patient flow between and within multiple settings in order to calibrate the accurate demand for HCV care cascades and enhance HCV treatment coverage in marginalized populations.

Guías de rehabilitación para niños con enfermedades respiratorias crónicas / Rehabilitation guidelines for children with chronic respiratory diseases

La prevalencia de niños con enfermedades respiratorias crónicas ha aumentado significativamente,este hecho requiere plantear nuevas alternativas de evaluación y manejo destinadas a mantener o aumentar la capacidad de desempeño físico y mejorar la calidad de vida. Estas guías tienen como objetivo entregar las bases y recomendaciones para un programa de rehabilitación pulmonar (RP) específico. Se mencionan criterios de inclusión y exclusión, rol de los profesionales que conforman el equipo de RP y las estrategias de evaluación, entrenamiento y seguimiento.

Entrenamiento muscular en paciente traqueostomizado: a propósito de un caso / Respiratory muscle training in tracheostomized patient: a case report

Se presenta el caso de una niña de 14 años portadora de Síndrome de Escobar, trastorno congénito caracterizado por alteraciones musculoesqueléticas, entre ellas escoliosis, que determinan una alteración ventilatoria restrictiva, similar a la presentada por pacientes neuromusculares. La Paciente está traqueostomizada con soporte ventilatorio en su domicilio. Se plantea un programa de Rehabilitación Respiratoria con Entrenamiento Físico general y de la musculatura específica inspiratoria. Este entrenamiento específico es realizado con una válvula Threshold IMT® con una carga de un 30 por ciento de la fuerza generada, medida a través de la Presión Inspiratoria Máxima. En un corto período presentó una mejoría significativa de su valor basal en un 42 por ciento. Es interesante destacar la factibilidad de entrenar pacientes con traqueostomía.