Lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

Content Providers: CDC/ Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAMS

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic had dramatic effects on most countries worldwide; Italy has been one of the most affected countries in Europe. The pandemic also severely affected the population and, especially, healthcare providers.

In the commentary published in BJBMS, the authors from the Sapienza University of Rome and Tor Vergata University discuss the main points that they faced as healthcare providers during the pandemic, with a special focus on the lessons learned so far, the mistakes that should be avoided in the future, and how to better face a possible new outbreak in the near future.

These recommendations would allow a more diffused, efficient and efficacious management of COVID-19 patients, also reducing the number of accesses to hospital emergency departments and the related spread of the infection. The authors believe that COVID-19 patients should be diagnosed and managed at home, especially in the early phases and when clinical conditions do not require hospitalization or intensive care.

Personal protective equipment should always be used for individual protection and to prevent the spread of the infection. Serological tests should be extensively performed in the healthcare and general population; in case of serological positivity, a nasopharyngeal swab should be performed for early identification and isolation of infectious subjects. Specific architectural hints in hospital construction should be considered to face future pandemics.

These recommendations would allow a more diffused, efficient and efficacious management of COVID-19 patients, also reducing the number of accesses to hospital emergency departments and the related spread of the infection.

Reference:

Minni A, Ralli M, Candelori F, Cialente F, Ercoli L, Parlapiano C, Greco A, De Vincentiis M. Lessons Learned from COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy. Bosn J Basic Med Sci. 2020 May 16. doi: 10.17305/bjbms.2020.4847. PMID: 32415815

Editor: Edna Skopljak

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