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Covid-19 and intensive care medicine: "We will manage it"

2020-10-19T12:40:18.610Z


The number of coronavirus infections in Germany is increasing. Nevertheless, intensive care physicians are currently looking to the coming weeks with confidence.


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Ventilator in a room of the Hamburg-Eppendorf University Hospital

Photo: Axel Heimken / dpa / Pool / dpa

The number of new coronavirus infections is increasing significantly in Germany.

So far, intensive care physicians have been optimistic that the clinics will not reach their capacity limits.

"We will do it," says Uwe Janssens, President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), and chief physician at the St. Antonius Hospital, Eschweiler.

"I don't know a single one who says it's going to be a disaster."

Janssens reported with two other experts in a press conference organized by the Science Media Center about the situation at the clinics and the preparations for autumn and winter.

Despite the increasing number of cases, the situation is different from March and April: Currently, a significantly lower proportion of people with a diagnosed coronavirus infection would have to go to hospital than in spring.

"We estimate that about six percent of Sars-CoV-2 positives have to be treated in hospital. One third of them, a total of two percent, have to be treated in intensive care," said Janssens.

One of the reasons for this is that the average age of those currently infected is lower than that of those infected in spring.

However, there are concerns that the virus will again increasingly spread among older people.

Problem: lack of staff

Janssens pointed out a major problem in the clinics that existed before Corona: There is a shortage of nursing staff.

According to statistics, there is a shortage of more than 50,000 nurses in German hospitals.

If there are bottlenecks, it is probably less because of the number of beds - but because of the lack of staff.

Clemens Wendtner, head of the special unit for highly contagious life-threatening infections at the Munich Clinic Schwabing, emphasized that a double wave of Covid-19 and the flu had to be prevented.

He therefore also recommends the flu vaccination for patients who do not belong to the groups that should be vaccinated according to the Standing Vaccination Commission.

At the moment it cannot be answered whether it will happen that many clinics will not postpone urgent operations and treatments.

However, the hospitals could implement this quickly, said Janssens.

According to Wendtner, the clinics in Germany are well prepared.

One must "be vigilant, but go into the next few weeks with a certain degree of confidence".

However, it is also clear that Covid-19 is still a dangerous disease.

Wendtner said that the mortality from Covid-19 is about 20 times that of the flu.

In addition, there is the so-called long Covid: patients who have symptoms weeks and months after the infection.

The two most important are permanent exhaustion and respiratory problems, said Wendtner.

It will only become clear what long-term consequences will result for those affected who have developed many tiny blood clots as a result of Covid-19 or in whose lungs increased connective tissue has formed.

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Source: spiegel

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