Thursday, April 16, 2020

Up to date information on Covid-19 for veterinary teams

Social distancing means that I cannot visit my family, including Bosca. 


Last night I gave a webinar for the Centre for Veterinary Education on ethical challenges for veterinary teams that have arisen from the Covid-19 pandemic. A recording will be available soon (more info here https://www.cve.edu.au/web/ethical-challenges-veterinary-teams-covid-19-era). 

In the meantime a common question was where to go for reliable information.
For reliable it needs to be up to date, as – to repeat an oft-repeated phrase – this is a rapidly evolving situation.

There is quite a lot out there and it can be hard to sort the wheat from the chaff, but this is an area where our professional organisations play a vital role. For example, the Australian Veterinary Association (of which I am a member) has established a Covid-19 working group which has already produced some very useful resources and answered practical questions.

The Australian Veterinary Association have set up an online Coronavirus Information Hub which includes FAQs about PPE, telemedicine, protocols and procedures: https://www.ava.com.au/coronavirus/

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS Knowledge) has established a coronavirus information page: https://knowledge.rcvs.org.uk/covid-19/

The American Veterinary Medical Association also has a page here: https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/animal-health-and-welfare/covid-19

The World Small Animal Veterinary Association have provided information, available in a number of languages: https://wsava.org/news/highlighted-news/the-new-coronavirus-and-companion-animals-advice-for-wsava-members/

Dr Scott Weese's Worms and Germs blog is extremely useful and very current. I am not sure when he sleeps, but if there's a new pre-print about Covid-19 with a veterinary angle, he covers it: https://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/

For general information of the non-veterinary kind, the World Health Organisation provides situation reports, rolling updates and online courses: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

For veterinarians based in Australia, Judy Gillespie from Vet Answers has been compiling a Covid-19 resource hub for the veterinary industry: http://www.vetanswers.com.au/covid-19-the-veterinary-industry