hne health libraries linking evidence with practice

This new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare looks at the direct and indirect health effects of COVID-19 in Australia using data from the first year of the pandemic (up to April/May 2021). It includes information on case numbers, deaths, and burden of disease as well as the impact on other diseases, health services, changes in health behaviours and social determinants. It draws on data from a range of sources including disease surveillance systems, death registrations, hospitalisations, MBS and PBS, and surveys.
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Clinical guidelines from the Australian National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce. The guidelines are designed to provide information to assist decision making and have been informed by the highest quality evidence available at the time of compilation. This version was updated on the 20th August 2021.
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This recent study in the UK – funded by Public Health England – and published in the NEJM – investigated the effectiveness of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer) and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AstraZeneca) vaccines against the B.1.617.2 (delta) variant. While effectiveness after one dose of either vaccine was lower among people with the delta variant, they found high levels of vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease with the delta variant after the receipt of two doses. Only modest differences in vaccine effectiveness were noted with the delta variant as compared with the alpha variant after the receipt of two vaccine doses. The authors nevertheless advise caution and note that the findings are observational.
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What you need to know:

• Not all facial dermatoses related to personal protective equipment are “maskne”
• Irritant contact dermatitis is the most common cause
• Maintenance of the skin barrier and regular “mask breaks” are important aspects of management, in addition to standard medical treatment of the skin condition

Read BMJ Practice Pointer...
Further content in BMJ...