Category: Medical

Rabies [notifiable disease]

Recent Incident: Bat contact was not recognised (effectively touching a bat without gloves means treatment is recommended)

Important: Rabies Vaccine is in short supply and we must do a UKHSA risk assessment.  Call RIgS 09:30-17:00 7 days, Info required HERE

 

Rabies is an acute viral encephalomyelitis caused by members of the lyssavirus genus. The UK has been declared “Rabies-Free”. However, it is known that even in  “Rabies-Free” counties the bat population posse a risk.

In the UK the only bat to carry rabies is the Daubenton’s Bat [Picture on the Left] and this is not a common bat in the UK. The UK and Ireland are Classified as “low-risk” for bat exposure. Despite our “low-risk” status in 2002 a man died from rabies caught in the UK from bat exposure.

Although rabies is rare it is fatal so we must treat appropriately, Public Health England – Green book details this.

Risk Assessment

To establish patients risk and thus treatment you need to establish the Exposure Category and Country Risk [Link to Country Risk]

Exposure Category

Combined Country/Animal & Exposure Risk

Treatment

Obviously patients with wounds will need appropriate wound care and cleaning, specifics for rabies are below.

If in ANY doubt, or you feel you need advice about treatment contact: On-Call Microbiologist (who will contact PHE or Virology advice)

 

You will likely need to liaise with the duty pharmacist to obtain vaccine or HRIG – which may need to be sent from a different hospital. [it is probably worth trying to obtain the 1st weeks treatment if possible, to avoid treatment delays]

IN HOURS 08:30AM-5PM PLEASE CALL PHARMACY TO INFORM THEM TO EXPECT A DELIVERY OF IMMUNOGLOBULIN SO THIS CAN BE SEGREGATED FOR THE CORRECT PATIENT. PLEASE ASK TO SPEAK TO THE RESPONSIBLE PHARMACIST                      CRH (4218/4279) HRI (2422/7123) 

Rabies and Immunoglobulin Service (RIgS), National Infection Service, Public Health England, Colindale

  • RIgS telephone number: 0330 128 1020.
  • RIgS operates 7 days per week (9:30am to 5pm).
  • The emergency out of hours service is only able to deal with calls about potential human cases of botulism or diphtheria, or the highest risk rabies exposures who have not already received one post-exposure dose of rabies vaccine (these are exposures to the head or neck, excluding those related to UK bats, or to an animal that is confirmed to have rabies).
  • Health professionals calling about any other rabies exposures should administer a dose of rabies vaccine if the patient has not yet received any rabies vaccine (or if the next scheduled dose is due) and vaccine is available locally, and call back the next day after 9:30am to complete the risk assessment and confirm the timings for further vaccine doses.
  • Information required – HERE

 

 

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Medical Emergencies in Eating Disorders

Eating disorders* are relatively common and unfortunately patients who “look well” can have a significant mortality risk. MEED.org.uk have national risk tools to recognise those that would benefit from admission, which fit with our local mental health teams, and agreed by both acute medicine and paediatrics

(*anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating or avoidant restrictive food intake disorder)

Risk Assessment

RED indicators

Anyone with one or more RED’s is high risk and should be considered for admission MEED

  • BMI <13/<70% mBMI
  • Recent weight loss >1 kg/week for 2 weeks in an underweight patient
  • HR (awake) <40
  • Recurrent syncope with standing BP <90 systolic (<0.4th percentile for age) and postural drop >20 mmHg (or increase HR >30 [>35 if <16])
  • Fluid refusal or signs of dehydration
  • Temperature <35.5°C tympanic/35°C axillary
  • Long Qt or other ECG abnormalities
  • Low Glu/Na/K/Ca/PO4/Alb
  • Low WCC, Hb <10
  • Acute food refusal/very low calorie intake per day
  • Physical struggles with carers over nutrition
  • High levels of uncontrolled exercise (>2 hours/day)
  • Daily purging behaviours
  • Self-harm
  • Moderate–high risk suicidal ideas.
MEED Check list

Headache

There are numerous causes of headache, however, the pressing question in the ED is,

Is this a primary or SECONDARY headache?

  • Primary headaches [e.g. tension & migraine}, maybe painful and need analgesia but don’t require emergency investigation.
  • Secondary headaches, often but not always have serious underlying causes [e.g. SAH, central venous thrombosis] requiring emergent investigation and treatment

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Delirium in the ED

Delirium is one of a number of geriatric syndromes and has significant associated morbidity and mortality.

3 subtypes of delirium

  1. Hyperactive – easies to spot, one we are most familiar with. Characterised by agitation/aggression/hallucinations “the non cooperative patient”
  2. Hypoactive – harder to spot. Characterised by drowsiness, less responsive, vacant, sleeping more at home
  3. Mixed

Remember there is NO SUCH THING AS A “POOR HISTORIAN” !! – Just a poor clinician! If your patient is not cooperating and can’t tell you very much then you need to find out why!!! Read more

Hypothermia

Remove COLD, Add WARM, Don’t SHAKE

  • 32-35ºC [Mild] – Shivering, Tachycardia, Tachypnoeic, Vasoconstriction
  • 30-32ºC [Moderate] – Shivering stops, Pale/Cyanosed, Hypotensive, Confused, Lethargic
  • <30ºC [Severe] – Low GCS, Bradycardia/pnoeic, Hypotensive, Arrhythmias, Cardiac Arrest

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