Filenews 10 September 2021 - by Marilena Panagi
A new group of chronic patients seems to be being created around the world. Health systems are adapting to the circumstances imposed by the pandemic and are organizing facilities for patients whose hospitalization is prolonged due to coronavirus, as well as specialized clinics to provide care to people who have been living with the effects of the coronavirus for months, and who knows perhaps for years, after they have been infected with the virus.
Recently, in the daily announcements of the Ministry of Health for the 24-hour reporting of deaths, hospitalized and new cases, the category "Post-Covid" of patients has been included, who despite the fact that they now have a negative result in coronavirus tests and are not contagious, still remain either intubated in intensive care units, or are transferred to "non-covid" wards of public hospitals, since they continue to need inpatient care.
These people are a, let's call it a "new group" of pandemic patients, and it seems that the phenomenon became more apparent after the last outbreak when the number of intubated coronavirus patients increased significantly.
"Post-Covid" patients in hospitals are, or more correctly, will most likely be part of the wider group of people infected with the coronavirus and whether they needed hospitalization or not, they then present the "Post or long-Covid" syndrome, which involves the prolonged presence of symptoms for a long time. These people, perhaps in the process will form a new group of chronic patients since for the time being and with the pandemic going through even less than two years of dominance, the data is quite limited. If we take into account the fact that the appearance of the first "long-covid" patients began to be recorded worldwide, in September 2020, that is just a year ago, scientists have in their hands data for less than 6-9 months, which is why until this moment the extent of the interval during which prolonged symptoms last, are described in the period of 6-9 months.
The "Post or long-Covid" syndrome, as it is known, is observed to a fairly large extent in Cyprus and if we take into account the international statistic that 30% of people infected with the coronavirus then present symptoms that do not subside, then it means that at the moment on the island there are around 30,000 people who belong to this category of patients.
Speaking to "F", the infectious disease specialist and head of the wards for coronavirus patients at Nicosia Hospital, member of the S.A.E., Kostas Constantinou, clarifies that "we should not be carried away by the daily announcements and consider that the "long-Covid" syndrome concerns only people who remain intubated or in hospitalization in wards". The patients, he said, "that we currently have in hospitals and are characterized as "post-covid" patients in the announcements, are people who had severe illness, had to be hospitalized, most of them had to be admitted to an Intensive Care Unit and intubated, the 20 days have elapsed during which they were metadata (with or without a negative result) but still need hospitalization or even need to remain intubated and that is why they have passed are transferred either to "non-covid" wards, mainly in the pulmonary department, or to an ICU that do not involve coronavirus patients."
The need to record these cases, said Mr. Constantinou, "began to appear after the last outbreak and especially after the realization that we had an increased number of intubated patients who, while overcoming the coronavirus, their condition remained critical and they had to stay intubated". Perhaps, he said, "this is due to some extent, also to the fact that the average age of our intubated has fallen and we are dealing with organisms that maintain their endurance to a much greater extent, and that is why we see people of this category being detached and transferred to common wards to continue their treatment."
In the previous waves of the pandemic, said Mr. Constantinou, "we had some patients who needed long-term hospitalization and remained in the hospital after their negative test, but now we see that some data have changed, we are seeing an increase in the number of these patients and mainly we are seeing an increase in the number of patients who still remain intubated."
Need for specialized clinics
The covid-19 disease is a multi-systemic disease, said Mr. Constantinou, explaining that "this means that in most cases we may see that the lungs are affected but at the same time other organs may be affected and for this reason, the treatment of patients cannot be done by a single medical specialty".
In the CSO, he said, "for two months now, the discussion has begun about the need to set up specialized structures in public hospitals because we see that people infected with the virus have the long-covid syndrome and we have to be ready to serve them."
For the proper treatment of such cases "there needs to be a structure in which the evaluation of the patient will be made and then referred to the appropriate medical specialty for his case, depending on the problem he presents".
Rescheduled appointments
The rescheduling of surgeries that had been postponed due to the ban in force in the previous period, announced yesterday the Organization of State Health Services. According to the relevant announcement, "the decision to resume non-emergency surgeries was taken after consultation between the CySEC and the Minister of Health, based on the improved situation in the Organization's hospitals, as a result of the reduction and stabilization of the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19". Planning for non-emergency surgeries "began from Wednesday, and priority is given to patients whose surgery has been postponed due to a pandemic and whose state of health has deteriorated." The patients, according to the CySEC, "will be informed by telephone from the hospital addresses".