SCIO briefing on frontline medical workers' expertise on COVID-19 treatment
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 7, 2020
CGTN:
Thank you. I’m from CGTN – China Global Television Network. So, my question is, it has been two months since the coronavirus was first reported in China, and we know that since then, a lot of measures have been taken by the government to contain the spread across the country.
Now, looking back, what kind of lessons can we draw from this fight against the disease? Thank you.
Qiao Jie:
Thank you for the question. Actually, in my opinion, two things are very important. First, it is key to mobilize all resources, and second, we must diagnose and control the disease scientifically.
First, I’ll address mobilizing all resources. We actually not only need medical staff, such as doctors and nurses, but also social workers, logistics staff and construction workers, and so on. All are important for jobs like establishing mobile cabinet hospitals. It’s really amazing because there they can treat more mild patients. Most of the patients are mild and need to [be] isolated and observed the changing conditions. If changed from mild to severe, [patients] can transfer to our side, because our task is treatment for the severe patients.
We are happy for the treating and discharging of some patients back to home and back to health. And some severe patients became mild, but also some passed away. We need time to realize the mechanism of this virus infection.
And also we have already established different treatment methods like the oxygen giving and using of non-invasive and invasive ventilator and also tried to use some drugs and other treatments. But we need time to survey for that, so we organized specialists together and even the remote consultant for improved treatment results. So we need scientific control of the disease. Thank you.
Xi Yanchun:
Professor Cao.
Cao Bin:
Thank you. I think it is a good question.
In no more than two months, the disease, the COVID-19 is not only a Wuhan disease, and it's not only a China disease, but a global disease. The question is what lessons, but I want to say what achievement the Chinese doctors and the scientists made during the last two months! Not so many days. I think the most important and the first achievement is in science. If we want to control the disease, we have base on science. I believe that many doctors, researchers, and scientists in Wuhan, and in other cities of China, contributed a lot to the knowledge of the new disease.
Everyone has to remember that it's a new disease. If we have a new disease, it takes time for us to get to know the disease. We get to know the disease through several steps. The first step is that the doctors collect the clinical data, the clinical signs, the laboratory findings, and the chest X-ray and CT scans. This is the first step. The second step is the pathology. A good news is that the pathologists in Wuhan city have done autopsy, and the pathology data helps the clinicians to know more about the disease.
The third is the basic science. It's the first time that the Chinese scientists find the cause of the disease. When we look back to the end of December, nobody knew what the disease is. At that time we called the disease “viral pneumonia with unknown etiology.” But now we have the cause of disease. The disease is caused by a novel coronavirus, and now is named by the international society as SARS-CoV-2. And the disease, we call that COVID-19. I think it is the first achievement that China made during the last two months.
The second achievement is the openness of the Chinese government. From the very beginning, the Chinese government has had face-to-face connection with the WHO, and I'm the person to introduce our clinical findings to WHO from the first cohort of the cases. And I also got e-mails from foreign physicians, whom I’ve known for many years. They told me that, “Cao Bin, I got to know the disease through your publication.” They also told me I’ve helped them.
For example, I helped the American doctors to publish the first paper in “Blue Journal.” In “Blue Journal,” they introduced to the American citizens what the disease is like. I think it is what we have done during the last two months. Thank you.
Xi Yanchun:
Professor Li Haichao. Would you like to add some words?
Li Haichao:
The task of our team is to treat the critically ill patients. So my experiences are in the following aspects.
The first one, we must set up the multiple-discipline team, because it's a very severe pneumonia, and it can develop to be ARDS. The severe situation needs multiple-disciplined doctors to deal with the various situations.
The second one is to keep the oxygen supplement, which is very important. The oxygen therapy and the reasonable use of ventilator are very important.
And the third one, just as Professor Cao said, it's a new disease. So in this area, we set up a mechanism for sharing knowledge and experience between the colleagues from the different hospitals. It's very helpful for us to know about this disease. Thank you.
Xi Yanchun:
Professor Du, anything to share with us?
Du Bin:
It's a very difficult and tough question for me, because there are too many things and too little time to think about it. However, if I could have the chance to go back, I would say, I’ll try more aggressively the invasive mechanical ventilation in all patients with clinical deterioration in terms of the respiratory failure or hypoxemia.
In addition, I will try more aggressively to propose my suggestion to the local and national healthcare authorities to convene all my ICU colleagues, including the doctors and nurses, to work together in some designated hospitals to establish an intensive care unit to cope with the critical care search or the search of the critically ill patients.
And I do believe such kind of approach can help our patients, especially those critically ill patients to recover more rapidly. Thank you.
Qiao Jie:
COVID-19 gives us many lessons to learn. It is not only the respiratory tract disease. Actually, some patients had complications like vascular disease， hypertension, diabetes and kidney failure or something. So, we need to combine together specialists to treat this complicated condition.
Xi Yanchun:
Thank you. Next question, please. The gentleman in the first line in black shirt.
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