Postgraduate medical journal
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Review Comparative Study
Endocrine changes in SARS-CoV-2 patients and lessons from SARS-CoV.
Coronavirus infection outbreaks have occurred frequently in the last two decades and have led to significant mortality. Despite the focus on reducing mortality by preventing the spread of the virus, patients have died due to several other complications of the illness. The understanding of pathological mechanisms and their implications is continuously evolving. ⋯ Similar pathological and biochemical changes are being reported with the novel coronavirus disease outbreak in 2020. In this review, we focus on these endocrine changes that have been reported in both SARS coronavirus and SARS coronavirus-2. As we battle the pandemic, it becomes imperative to address these underlying endocrine disturbances that are contributing towards or predicting mortality of these patients.
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Managing healthcare service during pandemics and outbreaks is a challenging process. The aim is to keep patient safety as the priority, besides, continuing to provide essential healthcare services. ⋯ It is possible to maintain essential surgical services in a pandemic situation through rapid situational audits and generating localised strategies while considering the constraints imposed during the pandemics while maintaining patient and staff safety.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has affected healthcare systems worldwide. The disruption to hospital routines has affected continuing medical education (CME) for specialty trainees (STs). We share our academic institution's experience in mitigating the disruption on the CME programme amidst the pandemic. ⋯ Some programmes also utilized small group teachings with precautions and e-learning modules. Surgical residencies were disproportionately affected due to reductions in elective procedures but some ways to provide continued surgical exposure include going through archived surgical videos with technical pointers from experienced faculty and usage of surgical simulators. We should adapt CME sessions to keep trainees up to date with core clinical competencies as they will continue to manage both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 cases and this pandemic may last until year's end.