Maintaining basic healthcare with 80 medicines in an emergency: Introduction to working with the WHO Interagency Emergency Health Kit (IEHK) 2024 including case studies

This is a short version of a training session that aims to prepare pharmacists for working with the WHO Interagency Emergency Health Kits (IEHK) before being deployed to an emergency or disaster. The IEHK are commonly used by aid organisations when responding to emergencies. An IEHK contains only 80 medicines. The challenge is to use the limited number of medicines rationally and efficiently to provide rapid care to the affected population. We provide the background of the IEHK and an overview of its components and explore some challenges by using patient case studies utilising a variety of medicines information sources.

Chair:

- Matthias Meyer, Senior Colonel, German Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr), Vice President of MEPS, Germany

Facilitator:

- Ina Donat, Retired pharmacist, member of FIP MEPS and Pharmacists without Borders Germany, Germany/ United Kingdom

Panellist:

- Carina Vetye, Pharmacist and Project Lead for Argentina, Pharmacists without Borders Germany, Germany/ Argentina