Resuscitation is filling up in Kaunas due to delta strain – COVID-19 disease now manifests slightly differently than before

“The situation is under control, there is no need to think about how to reduce the volume of other medical services, because those other groups of patients have been greatly affected by all the restrictions during the previous waves. Now, it is in everyone’s interest to maintain the offer of other services. Currently, the biggest challenge for all hospitals is balancing combat and non-combat services in their institutions, ”said V. Gurskis.

Currently, LSMU Kaunas Hospital, which is the main combat hospital in the region, has 50 beds and 6 beds in resuscitation for adults in the Department of Infectious Diseases.

“We have opened three sets of such rooms in the region, we have 178 oxygen beds and 21 resuscitation beds. With these beds we can balance the help of combatant and non-combatant patients: everyone has sufficient resources available, all kinds of services can be provided, unlimited operations can be provided, because everything works quite well, ”explained the doctor.

Currently, 119 of the 178 oxygen beds for COVID-19 patients in the Kaunas region are occupied, which is 67 percent. According to the interlocutor, there is some increase compared to previous days, but it is insignificant.

“In the resuscitation beds, we felt a higher flow of patients for the second week in a row. For example, today the occupancy of beds is 67 percent, the occupancy of a day during the weekends reached 70 percent. Today, 14 of the 21 beds are occupied. Perhaps the good news is that a smaller proportion of those 14 patients are on artificial lung ventilation.

Only in the main medical institutions is the situation different. For example, two out of every four patients treated at LSMU Kaunas Hospital are ventilated, and four out of seven patients at Kaunas Clinics are equipped with artificial lung ventilation. All the others are with oxygen therapy-mask or with high-flow oxygen therapy. Although the number 14 is large, it is not too high. So far, there are not a large number of artificially ventilated patients.

It is such good news here that we do not have a very large influx of very seriously ill patients during this wave, although the need for COVID-19 treatment in resuscitation is constantly increasing for two weeks in a row, ”said Dr. V. Gurskis. said the Delfi portal.

The doctor stressed that not all those who, due to the COVID-19 disease, have not only recently been resuscitated but also need artificial lung ventilation, have not been vaccinated.

“And people who are vaccinated for the coronavirus are in resuscitation, but they do not need artificial pulmonary ventilation, high-flow oxygen therapy is enough,” said the doctor, adding: such deterioration. They are usually older people from 70 to 80 years old.

And the main mass of patients treated in our hospitals are between 60 and 70 years old. It can be said that 60 years is the most common age in which a patient is in resuscitation. Of course, there are also people in their 40s, 50s, single from the 90s. But the main age group is around 60 years old, “noted V. Gurskis.

Asked why some young people are admitted to the intensive care unit, the interlocutor said that none of them were healthy: “They have multiple pathologies. They are generally not vaccinated. But we were not very young in the Kaunas region during this wave. In previous waves, there were a couple of young people who got sick and died as if they were healthy.

But during this wave, we don’t see it. Young people, with very few exceptions, are now almost absent from resuscitation. We were recently treated by a 35-year-old man with Down syndrome who had many comorbidities. Of course, he had not been vaccinated. “

COVID-19 is sometimes more serious in people who have been fully vaccinated. Vaccinated people who have diabetes, kidney failure, ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, people recovering from kidney transplants and receiving immunosuppressive treatment are more likely to develop COVID-19.

“They are specific situations related to the development of immunity. Or, naturally, a person may not be in very good shape, although the immune response to COVID-19 is sufficient, but they can become infected with coronavirus and their condition is significantly worsened by fever, dehydration and some circulatory problems, “he said. Gurskis explained.

The doctor warned that recently the number of people who are not only seriously ill but also dying from COVID-19 has increased.

“Recently, two or more patients have died a day, and in the summer there were practically no deaths for a month and a half. These were very rare and special cases in which people were very seriously ill, they had multiple pathologies. The fatal outcome is generally due to a very solid age and a pathology due to the solidity of age.

If a younger person dies, their pathology is usually very serious and the vaccine sometimes does not help either. There were no completely healthy people who died who were vaccinated, “the doctor said.

When asked if the attitudes of unvaccinated people in the intensive care unit and their families towards vaccines are changing, the doctor said the situations are different.

“Generally, when an unvaccinated person contracts a severe form of the disease and is in the intensive care unit, the attitude of both him and his relatives begins to change. They demand both different treatment and more care, and they want to be transferred from one treatment center to another to be transferred to a central hospital. Such requirements arise during this wave. People want to get what they think are better services, although they basically get the same services everywhere because all patients are treated and cared for in the same way, each more difficult case being discussed in joint discussions.

I remember a situation two weeks ago when a representative of a family approached me. There were four people in his family, all adults. Two of them died in earlier waves, the other two fell ill later and one of them was hospitalized. Clearly, that man did not get vaccinated. But when he fell ill, complaints arose. He was asked to transfer the sick person to a higher level medical institution. Of course, we help those people, but the best way to help those people survive is, “” said the doctor.

The delta strain is said to have slightly different symptoms than the original version of the coronavirus or earlier strains. The doctor said that the beginning of the disease, when infected with a delta variety, is a little different.

“It is not entirely typical of influenza or previous waves of COVID-19. The disease begins with a runny nose, sore throat, fever, general malaise and may include abdominal pain. Thus, the onset of the disease and its manifestations they are more characteristic of the common cold than the flu.

However, later forms of the disease, if there is lung damage, they are not very different. They are essentially in line with what was in previous waves. For example, children, adolescents and young adults under the age of 24 have a systemic inflammatory syndrome, when the fever continues after the COVID-19 disease, all organs and systems react and this condition requires quite intensive treatment, ”said the Dr. V. Gurskis.

The doctor added that vaccinated people can carry the virus and not even feel it or have mild forms of the disease. The most serious cases among vaccinated people are particularly rare.

Asked if it is worth getting a flu shot this year, the interlocutor said: “We went through last season without a flu wave. It is likely that there will not be two such seasons, there will be a coincidence with the fight or a wave of flu that will pass slightly with it. When evaluating this, it is worth thinking about vaccination against influenza for people at risk or for certain professions. “