French doctors are showing growing concern about the coronavirus and admit that they were mistaken in comparing it to the flu. They now say that you have to prepare for the worst, according to Le Parisien.
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Faced with the surging number of patients, the doctors changed their tone and gave free rein to their concern, recognizing that comparing the coronavirus to a flu was a mistake, reports Le Parisien.
“It is much more serious,” said Gilles Pialoux, head of the infectiology service at Tenon Hospital in Paris, to the newspaper.
The reality is that it is a more contagious and deadly virus than the flu. If the mortality rate for the latter is 0.1%, that for the coronavirus is 2% to 3%.
“Of course, it’s not Ebola. But the Chinese have shown that a patient can be fine and suddenly, the second week, on the 8th or 10th day, he ends up in intensive care, “said the doctor.
Young people more often infected
Another concern is that nowadays people admitted to intensive care are no longer only frail and elderly. Often, these are young people of 30 or 40 years without pathology.
A nurse confirmed to the Parisian that there was none with a medical history in a very serious state.
“Why some people draw the wrong card from the serious form, we don’t know,” said Gilles Pialoux.
The virus does not mutate, but spreads quickly
Jean-Michel Constantin, deputy secretary general of the French Society of Anesthesia and Resuscitation, explains this to the Parisian by the fact that “contamination is such that we end up also having critical forms in young people”. According to him, the virus is not mutating, but it is spreading quickly.
On the other hand, he reassured the ability to take care of all the patients: “We have room. We don’t take lessons ”.
However, patients must remain on average 20 days in intensive care under artificial ventilation, which does not allow other patients to access it.
People healed exhausted for six months
“It is bad news in bad news. Let’s be clear, we must prepare for the worst, “said Mr. Pialoux
The newspaper concludes that 80% of the patients are saved and that they will not have pulmonary after-effects.
“But they will be exhausted for six months. And they will have to go through a rehabilitation phase because of neuromuscular damage, ”summed up Jean-Michel Constantin.
Regarding the emergency measures to be taken, Éric Caumes, the head of the infectious diseases department at the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital, was emphatic: “We must confine”.
And to add: “We are always late. Let’s stop chasing after the epidemic. ”
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