The new coronavirus disease is a new lesson for all physicians, even for specialists in infectious diseases.
But in 15 to 20 out of a hundred infected, it would require hospitalization, and a third of hospitalized patients need critical care, and tubes have to be inserted through the mouth into their lungs. The tubes are connected to breathing machines or mechanical ventilators to sustain the oxygen levels in their blood.
One test I ask my patient to do is to take a deep breath and hold the breath at the end of a full inspiration. Because physicians don’t know what would really work for patients with COVID-19, the tendency is to give patients a shotgun treatment, including a cocktail of antiviral agents which have been shown effective for other viruses but not for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. On top of this, other potent supportive treatments, usually given intravenously are administered to the patients.
If the risk is minimal, it may be acceptable to try the drug, but if the risk is high, the physician will have to consider other options. I believe the antimalarial drug chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine helps in COVID-19 patients, and I recommend them in most patients, except those with serious heart issues that can make them predisposed to a serious arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat.
Hopefully we can also get our hands on Favipiravir which is specifically designed for influenza viruses like CoViD-19. The only problem is we don’t know the side-effects.