Basel Karo

#EPIET Epidemiologist PhD, Public Health, Pharmacist @RKI , consultant @WHO @HIVTB prev.@PHE_uk

[GOARN @WHOGOARN]

@WHOEMRO @WHOGOARN & @rki_de are co-hosting the 5-day GOARN Outbreak Response Leadership Training course for 23 participants from @WHOEMRO and @WHOAFRO

[World Health Organization (WHO) @WHO]

WHO: civilians, patients, and health workers in #Gaza spend night in darkness and fear

During a night of intense bombardment and ground incursions in Gaza, with reports of hostilities still continuing, health workers, patients and civilians have been subject to a total communication and electrical blackout.

WHO reiterates its calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, and reminds all parties to the conflict to take all precautions to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. This includes health workers, patients, health facilities and ambulances, and civilians who are sheltering in these facilities. Active measures must be taken to ensure they are not harmed and safe passage provided for the movement of desperately needed medical supplies, fuel, water and food into and across Gaza.

Reports of bombardment near the Indonesia and Al Shifa hospitals are gravely concerning. WHO reiterates that it is impossible to evacuate patients without endangering their lives. Hospitals across Gaza are already operating at maximum capacity due to the injuries sustained in weeks of unrelenting bombardment, and are unable to absorb a dramatic rise in the number of patients, while sheltering thousands of civilians.

Health workers who have stayed by their patients’ sides face dwindling supplies, with no place to put new patients, and no means to alleviate their patients’ pain. There are more wounded every hour. But ambulances cannot reach them in the communications blackout. Morgues are full. More than half of the dead are women and children.

WHO has not been able to communicate with its staff in Gaza, nor have other agencies. Furthermore, WHO is trying to gather information on the overall impact on civilians and health care.

WHO appeals to the humanity in all those who have the power to do so to end the fighting now, in line with the UN resolution adopted yesterday, calling for a humanitarian truce, as well as the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians held captive.

[World Health Organization (WHO) @WHO]

Evacuation orders by Israel to hospitals in northern Gaza are a death sentence for the sick and injured

As the @UN's agency responsible for public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) strongly condemns Israel's repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2000 inpatients in northern Gaza. The forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe.

The lives of many critically ill and fragile patients hang in the balance: those in intensive care or who rely on life support; patients undergoing hemodialysis; newborns in incubators; women with complications of pregnancy, and others all face imminent deterioration of their condition or death if they are forced to move and are cut off from life-saving medical attention while being evacuated.

Health facilities in northern Gaza continue to receive an influx of injured patients and are struggling to operate beyond maximum capacity. Some patients are being treated in corridors and outdoors in surrounding streets due to a lack of hospital beds.

Forcing more than 2000 patients to relocate to southern Gaza, where health facilities are already running at maximum capacity and unable to absorb a dramatic rise in the number patients, could be tantamount to a death sentence.

Hospital directors and health workers are now facing an agonizing choice: abandon critically ill patients amid a bombing campaign, put their own lives at risk while remaining on site to treat patients, or endanger their patients’ lives while attempting to transport them to facilities that have no capacity to receive them.

Overwhelmingly, caregivers have chosen to stay behind and honor their oaths as health professionals to “do no harm,” rather than risk moving their critically ill patients during evacuations. Health workers should never have to make such impossible choices.

Additionally, tens of thousands of displaced people in northern Gaza are seeking refuge in open spaces in or around hospitals, treating them as havens from violence as well as to protect the facilities from potential attacks. Their lives, too, are at risk when health facilities are bombed.

There are verified reports of deaths of health care workers and destruction of health facilities, which denies civilians the basic human right of life-saving health care and is prohibited under International Humanitarian Law.

WHO calls for Israel to immediately reverse evacuation orders to hospitals in northern Gaza, and calls for the protection of health facilities, health workers, patients, and civilians.

WHO also reiterates its calls for the immediate and safe delivery of medical supplies, fuel, clean water, food, and other humanitarian aid into Gaza through the Rafah crossing, where life-saving assistance, including WHO health supplies that arrived earlier today, is currently awaiting entry.

[Basel Karo @baselkaro]

24 PH leaders and highly experienced mentors joined the first @WHOGOARN outbreak response leadership training at @rki_de
https://t.co/a4Op0iDvf3

[Robert Koch-Institut @rki_de]

🇺🇳🤝@WHO_Europe supports its Member States in responding to & recovering from #PublicHealth emergencies. @DrRockenschaub, Regional Emergency Director, and colleagues from @WHO_Europe visited to #RKI to discuss ongoing and future collaboration.

#StrongerTogether #GlobalHealth

[Chikwe Ihekweazu @Chikwe_I]

Collaborating with partners like the Robert Koch Institute @rki_de, makes our work a lot easier. They match our ambition and energy.

Thank you @BMG_Bund for your support.

#StrongerTogether

[TEPHINET @tephinet]

This week, #TEPHINET and @WHOGOARN hosted another GOARN Tier 1.5 workshop to orient #FETPs to responding to international emergencies.

35 participants joined to learn about processes, realities & challenges of working as an #fieldepidemiologist on an outbreak response mission.

[Basel Karo @baselkaro]

See our findings on #SARSCoV2 prevalence and associated factors in #Malawi from a hospital-based study #RKI @RegSing https://t.co/lqpa0qiIHH

[Basel Karo @baselkaro]

Clinical management and impact of #scarlet fever in the modern era. We conducted a cross-sectional study of cases in #London, 2018–2019 @BMJ_Open https://t.co/WkZellnSxD

[Basel Karo @baselkaro]

Keeping track of #plague circulation among #rodents #Iran zoonotic #seroprevalence Iran_CDC #pasteur #WHO #RKI

[TEPHINET @tephinet]

Interested in hearing first-hand accounts of field #epidemiology during humanitarian crises & #emergencyresponse?

Join us Thursday for a 🆓 webinar where @baselkaro will share his deployment experience during the Rohingya Crisis in 2017.

Register on #TEPHIConnect today!
🔗👇

[RKI für Euch @RKI_fuer_Euch]

Digital Session: The Power of Partnership in Global Health Protection

Tune in and take part online for free at https://t.co/2GpFPez6E4
📌 Monday, Oct 25, at 4pm CET

@rki_de @AfricaCDC @WorldHealthSmt

[Basel Karo @baselkaro]

I was honoured to visit this beautiful city #Kabul. Sending my prayers to all great people I met and worked with in #Afganisthan and WHO country office there 🙏

[RKI für Euch @RKI_fuer_Euch]

Together with the @WHO's Global TB Programme, the #RKI aims to strengthen the capacity of national #tuberculosis programs (NTPs) in West & Central #Africa to monitor and mitigate the impact of #COVID19 on tuberculosis services.

https://t.co/m5IQnxFvBb

#RKIinternational @HIVTB

[Basel Karo @baselkaro]

We analysed all England isolates of S. #Typhi and #Paratyphi 2014-2019. Findings show increase in prevalence and distribution of #antimicrobial #Resistance among imported cases. Demonstrating limited options for treatment of #entericfever in travellers. https://t.co/N5ML6vcHL7

[RKI für Euch @RKI_fuer_Euch]

Together with the @WHO, the #RKI aims to identify motivators + barriers for routine childhood & #COVID19 vaccinations. The goal: Develop targeted interventions to increase #vaccination rates among the Rohingya refugees in Cox‘s Bazar 🇧🇩

https://t.co/eT0MnzmQeI

#RKIinternational

[Basel Karo @baselkaro]

I am always glad to support #GOARN and be a part of this great network @WHOGOARN @tephinet

[GOARN @WHOGOARN]

@WHOGOARN @TEPHINET and @CDCgov hosted a 2-day virtual #training to orient 35 #FETP graduates from around the world to International #Outbreak #Response with GOARN. The training was supported by a multidisciplinary faculty from #GOARN partners. https://t.co/UZ17IRkRAN

[Basel Karo @baselkaro]

One can't advocate for racial equality, LGBT and women's rights, yet choose to ignore the Palestinian oppression. IT DOESN'T ADD UP. #SaveSheikhJarrahh #moralconsistency

[Human Rights Watch @hrw]

A Threshold Crossed

Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution

@HRW report https://t.co/PPk9T2siTB

[Gabby Stern @gabbystern]

News: '@WHO & Germany launch new global hub for pandemic & epidemic intelligence
•The WHO Hub for Pandemic & Epidemic Intelligence will be a global platform for pandemic & epidemic intelligence, creating shared & networked access to vital multi-sectoral data...

[Basel Karo @baselkaro]

Very sad! Suicide among #women in #Japan~15% more than in 2019. Response to #COVID19 pandemic should go beyond containing the #coronavirus

[The New York Times @nytimes]

As the pandemic took hold, suicide rose among Japanese women https://t.co/TLw1qi7Vc3