Professor Mickienė Treats COVID-19 Patients: Staff Capacity Already Critical

People with mild form recover with more difficulty later

According to the head of the LSMU Clinic for Infectious Diseases prof. A. Mickienė, there is already a shortage of medical personnel working with patients with coronavirus infection.

“It’s still difficult for me to change because I recently left the room where we put very serious patients, so I really care about how things go there and how colleagues handle it. During the first wave, the society joined, now also would like people to look at the current measures in all seriousness. I think this is the last chance, ”warned the doctor who treats patients with COVID-19.

– When I look at it – 200 yesterday, 300 yesterday, 400 today, I’m very scared. If the numbers increase so exponentially, we can probably wait for the Italian stage. But even now, physical stamina and staff ability are critical. It is much more difficult for us now because the marathon has started and it will not end for long. If the situation does not improve, we will definitely see the faces of the doctors that we have seen in reports from foreign countries. “

According to the doctor, there is already a tendency for young people and people with mild illnesses to recover with great difficulty later, since their discomfort persists for at least 3 weeks after the illness.

“Feeling of shortness of breath, cough, tiredness, inability to return to normal life. Another aspect is that when the infection begins to spread among young people, it happens at approximately 3 weeks. The same increase is also felt among older people ”Said the professor.

In addition, according to the teacher, although 80 percent. patients get sick easily, but the other part, 20 percent. Severely ill poses a major problem as they must be hospitalized. And it is difficult and psychological for those who get into it, because they cannot see their loved ones for a long time.

“I don’t want any family member to enter the hospital, the coronavirus room, which is not accessible. Perhaps these are the last days of their lives, some have to go to bed and 64 days in that room absolutely isolated from their immediate surroundings. I really don’t wish that on anyone, “the doctor said sensitively.

The doctor also offered a brief overview of the treatment of patients with coronavirus infection, but stressed that it is constantly evolving as more research and new opportunities emerge.

According to the professor, currently, those patients with a mild form of the disease are not subject to specific treatment. Dexamethasone is also used in patients who need oxygen. For those who need oxygen, but not that much, remdesivir is an antiviral drug whose efficacy remains controversial.

“The main component is oxygen, and it is also very important to correct and control all comorbidities,” added prof. A. Mickienė.

Producer Justina Ragauskaitė, who was one of the first to develop coronavirus in Lithuania and spoke about it from the beginning, also participated in the conference. According to the woman, the disease is like a lottery in which you never know if you will get sick easily or complicated.

“There is no single rule that if you are a young person, everything will come and go, and it is only dangerous for a certain group. I say the same from personal experience. I would not name her illness as very serious, it was named as moderate. When I asked the doctors when I would be discharged, they told me that my situation was still very unstable. After that, however, I was released to recuperate at home. After 2 days I went back to the hospital. For me, the virus was a serious complication. I did not kiss or breathe, the smell may have been a bit dull, but the main symptom was a broken bone. I remember when the highway came I was thinking about how to get down the stairs. It also tormented the temperature, which did not drop in any way. Later the nausea, vomiting, intestinal problems began. I was sick for 44 days. I think it’s important to understand that we are all absolutely at risk, ”said J. Ragauskaitė.

If we live the same way, the cases will double every 2 weeks.

According to Aurelija Žvirblienė, a professor at the Vilnius University (VU) Life Sciences Center, although research on vaccines is taking place around the world, our problems will probably not be solved anytime soon.

“It is very difficult to say when it will be, it will depend on the success of the clinical trials of the third phase, because for some candidates, they have not even started. In a very optimistic case, we could have a vaccine for the upcoming fall season and that would be very surprising. It may also happen that we do not have any vaccines, “said Prof. A. Žvirblienė.

A volunteer who participated in an AstraZeneca Plc COVID-19 vaccine trial in Brazil was reported to have died of complications from the coronavirus in Brazil on Thursday. However, indirect sources reported that the death rate was in the placebo group.

“It could be because people don’t know what they are vaccinated for, be it a placebo or a real vaccine, and research is being done in countries where the virus is spreading a lot. Indirect sources also say it was a young doctor who worked with COVID-19 patients who died from complications from the coronavirus. Maybe it was really a placebo group and the person expected to be protected and not so protected, “said the professor.

According to prof. A. Žvirblienė: “If we live as we live today, the cases will double every 2 weeks or even every 10 days. And when I say this, I receive threats even on the phone, like today, to scare people. But it’s just a close-up and a reluctance to look the truth in the eye. If we look at a country like the Czech Republic, where morbidity is 10 times higher than in Lithuania, they also missed the moment when the curve kept going up and, apparently, they hoped that everything would work out somehow, – said the professor of VU.

– Until there are strict measures, no one voluntarily complies with those measures. With 400 cases a day, there are not enough resources. So there is the threat that the virus will spread from those outbreaks and we will have a spread in the population, as has been the case in northern Italy and the United States. I don’t want that to happen in Lithuania. Are dance studios, bars and clubs really a priority? “

The National Center for Public Health (NVSC) reports that 424 cases of coronavirus infection (COVID-19) were confirmed in Lithuania last day. 200 of them were registered in Vilnius, 80 in Kaunas, 38 in Šiauliai, 30 in Klaipėda, 24 in Marijampolė counties. Another 18 were approved in Telšiai, 14 in Panevėžys, 10 in Utena, 8 in Tauragė and 2 in Alytus counties.

Epidemiological studies of 307 cases are currently being carried out. After contact with people confirmed by coronavirus, epidemiologists estimated that 216 people were infected last day, based on currently available data. In addition, 7 import cases were recorded: 2 from Russia, 1 each from Spain, Belgium, France, Belarus and Romania. The circumstances of the infection of 84 people are not clear, i. and Epidemiological studies have shown that people did not travel abroad and did not communicate with people confirmed by COVID-19.