Articles: coronavirus.
-
Ethics Med Public Health · Oct 2020
Fighting the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic: Employing lessons from the Ebola virus disease response.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by a beta-coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that affects the lower respiratory tract and appears as pneumonia in humans. COVID-19 became apparent in December 2019 in Wuhan City of China, and has propagated profusely globally. ⋯ However, special efforts to reduce transmission via efficient public health communications and dissemination of risks should be applied in susceptible populations including children, health care providers, and the elderly. In response to this global pandemic, this article summarizes proven strategies that could be employed to combat the COVID-19 disease outbreak, taking a cue from lessons learned from the Ebola virus disease response.
-
In January 2020, we identified two severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected patients in a familial cluster with one person coming from Wuhan, China. The complete genome sequences of two SARS-CoV-2 strains isolated from these patients were identical and 99.98% similar to strains isolated in Wuhan. ⋯ The younger patient had a mild upper respiratory illness and a brief viral shedding, whereas the elderly with multi-morbidity had pneumonia, prolonged viral shedding, and residual lung damage. The evidence of nonsynonymous substitutions in the ORF1ab region of the viral sequence warrants further studies.
-
Limited evidence is available regarding the role of high-flow nasal oxygen in the management of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure secondary to coronavirus disease 2019. Our objective was to characterize outcomes associated with high-flow nasal oxygen use in critically ill adult patients with coronavirus disease 2019-associated acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. ⋯ We observed an overall high usage of high-flow nasal oxygen in our cohort of critically ill patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure secondary to coronavirus disease 2019. Rates of endotracheal intubation and mortality in this cohort were on par with and certainly not higher than other published series. These findings should prompt further considerations regarding the use of high-flow nasal oxygen in the management algorithm for coronavirus disease 2019-associated acute hypoxemic respiratory failure.