The coronavirus imported from China has reached France. The few cases detected have been taken care of by specialized hospitals and placed in isolation while they are being treated, but no treatment has yet been developed. Invited to Europe 1, Odile Launay, the infectiologist and head of the Cochin Hospital vaccination center in Paris, takes stock of the resources deployed to care for the sick. INTERVIEW
In the past month, the coronavirus that appeared in China has killed 41 people and contaminated nearly 1,300 people. Cases recently detected in a dozen other countries, including France, worry authorities around the world. Odile Launay, infectious disease specialist, coronavirus specialist and head of the Cochin Hospital vaccination center in Paris, provides an update on Europe 1 on the management of patients in France.
“At the moment we have no specific antiviral treatment,” she explains. “We have one for the flu but not for the coronavirus. The treatment is actually symptomatic management: we hospitalize the patients, we give them medicines for fever and if they have severe respiratory damage, they are supported in intensive care. “
The lack of knowledge around the incubation period and the degree of contagion forces doctors to place patients in isolation in specialized structures. In Paris, only the Bichat and Necker hospitals take care of people in whom the coronavirus has been detected.
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