HIV patients need to know about HIV & COVID 19 on world's AIDS day.

Fever, dyspnea, and dry cough 7 days ago. Diagnosed with COVID-19 with positive nasal swab and IgM antibodies. Worsening dyspnea over the past 2 days. D-dimer 9.05. What are your suggestions on this?

77 yeas old female with a background notable of metastatic small bowel GIST. The patient is on chemotherapy, HTN, thyroidectomy, cholecystectomy presented with 10 day Hx of intermittent fevers, nonproductive cough, and increased Shortness of breath. PO2 8.8 on FiO2 0.85 on admission Admitted to ICU and Intubated Lung protective ventilation commenced but desaturated to 80% following RIJ CVC. Decompressed by the bedside and a CXR was performed that revealed large pneumothorax. The chest drain inserted with pneumothorax resolved gradually. 1 day after admission the admitting diagnosis was confirmed COVID-19. What are your experiences and knowledge of managing COVID-19 patients? Please discuss

A 75-year old man with a history of hypertension, hemorrhagic cerebral infarction one year before, right-sided hemiparesis, and atrial fibrillation was brought to my hospital because of suspicious COVID-19 infection. He was seen in the ER because of a few days of dyspnea which became progressed and bad clinical condition. 7 days before the current presentation patient fell from its bed, and after that, he started to feel pain in his right part of the chest. He also noticed purple discoloration of his feet and left hand, which was painful and progressed further during the next days. He started to have DYSPNOEA, which also progressed. CBC: showed leukocytosis (26,9) and chest X-ray was described as bilateral pneumonia. On exam, the patient was alert, disoriented in time, immobile on the bed, with an obvious right hemiparesis, afebrile, tachypneic (R: 24/min), and bradycardic (P: 55/min), hypoxic (SpO2: 80%), with normal blood pressure. PHYSICAL EXAMINATION: showed dusky purple discoloration of both feet and fingers of the left hand. The patient's right feet showed some darker areas, which could be hematomas. CHEST EXAMINATION: showed the painful right side & we spotted the fracture of the 7th rib. Auscultation of lungs revealed bilateral inspiratory crackles, predominantly on the right side. The heart rhythm was regularly-regular. The rest of the examination was unremarkable. LAB ANALYSIS: revealed elevated urea (11,1) and creatinine (371), hypoalbuminemia (22), elevated LDH (705), and slightly elevated CK (201). The CRP was elevated (272,5), and coagulation panel was highly abnormal - aPTT 85,1s, PT 15%, INR >6,0, fibrinogen 2,4, and D-dimer 162 (normal <0,5). My (differential) diagnosis list for this patient was: - Fat embolism - Warfarin overdose - Bilateral pneumonia - Sepsis He didn't have any criteria for COVID-19, and also, its clinical presentation and disease course was not consistent with COVID-19 infection. The patient was transferred to ICU for further treatment. What do you say on this? I am mostly inclined to fat embolism in the first place, which was complicated, but I do not have experience with this diagnosis. What is your opinion on this case, what would be your further diagnostics and treatment?

Hi Curofians! I'm Dr. Nasir, a Family Medicine practitioner working in Singapore. This post is regarding the zone arrangements for the patients during and after the circuit breaker in running the OPD. In patient clinic, you should have 3 zones. 1. Red zone - For Suspected cases with travel or contact history with fever, should be straight asked to go to the hospital for a swab. 2. Orange zone - URTI symptoms without fever. 3. Green zone - No fever, no URTI symptoms. -In all these 3 zones patients shouldn't mix up with each other. - Full PPE in the orange and red zone is recommended. - Partial PPE in the green zone is recommended. - You should have additional staff in PPE to segregate patients in 3 zones, another staff to make sure these 3 zones patients should not mix up with different waiting areas. - The doctor going to see the patient will know in advance what type of patient he or she going to see. I hope it helps.

Hello everyone, Here are some important facts about COVID-19. From Clinical presentations to treatment. Please check it out and feel free to add more points. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: In a study describing 1099 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia in Wuhan, the most common clinical features at the onset of illness were: •Fever in 88% •Fatigue in 38% •Dry cough in 67% •Myalgias in 14.9% •Dyspnea in 18.7% Pneumonia appears to be the most common and severe manifestation of infection. In this group of patients breathing difficulty developed after a median of five days of illness. Acute respiratory distress syndrome developed in 3.4% of patients. Other symptoms •Headache •Sore throat •Rhinorrhea •Gastrointestinal symptoms About 80% of confirmed COVID-19 cases suffer from only mild to moderate disease and nearly 13% have the severe disease (dyspnea, respiratory frequency ≥30/minute, blood oxygen saturation≤93%, PaO2/FiO2 ratio <300, and/or lung infiltrates >50% of the lung field within 24-48 hours). Critical illness (respiratory failure septic shock, and/or multiple organ dysfunction/failure) is noted in only in less than 6% of cases. INCUBATION PERIOD: The exact incubation period is not known. It is presumed to be between 2 to 14 days after exposure, with most cases occurring within 5 days after exposure. THE SPECTRUM OF ILLNESS SEVERITY: Most infections are self-limiting. COVID-19 tends to cause more severe illness in the elderly population or in patients with underlying medical problems. As per the report from the Chinese center for disease control and prevention that included approximately 44,500 confirmed Infections with an estimation of disease severity. • Mild illness was reported in 81% of patients. • Severe illness (Hypoxemia, >50% lung involvement on imaging within 24 to 48 hours) in 14%. • Critical Disease (Respiratory failure, shock, multi-organ dysfunction syndrome) was reported in 5 percent. • Overall case fatality rate was between 2.3 to 5%. AGE AFFECTED: • Mostly middle-aged (>30 years) and elderly. • Symptomatic infection in children appears to be uncommon, and when it occurs, it is usually mild. **The 4th version of Belgian guidance for COVID 19 is published on19th March 2020. It is one of the most precise guidelines published yet. Some points from that: 1. Chloroquine is found to have good efficacy in vitro and it reduces the duration of viral shedding. But the drug has a narrow therapeutic window and cardiac toxicity is the most limiting side effect. 2. Hydroxychloroquine is more potent and is superior to chloroquine according to the very recent Gautret’ study. 3. Azithromycin may have a viral suppressive effect, but this needs to be proved as it was noticed accidentally in 6 patients of Gautret’ study. But I think it is a good choice for coverage of bacterial pneumonia. 4. Lopinavir/Ritonavir recently shown not to provide clinical benefit in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. It may reduce ICU stay if given within 10 days of infection but not beyond. 5. Remdesivir is promising but the studies are ongoing. Also, availability is a key issue. 6. Corticosteroids are not recommended as a systemic adjunctive treatment. 7. Paracetamol is the first-line analgesic and antipyretic over NSAIDs which are used with caution. 8. No need to stop ACEIs/ARBs in non-hospitalized patients. CONSIDER changing ACEIs/ARBs to another equivalent antihypertensive in hospitalized patients. 9. Antiviral therapy is not indicated in all patients with suspected/confirmed COVID19.