Protecting medical personnel from COVID-19
The Federation of European Academies of Medicine (FEAM) in its statement calls for providing protection of the physical and mental health of medical workers. To improve the functioning of the healthcare system medical staff should also be offered coronavirus antibody tests as soon as possible.
The FEAM Board points out that in order to protect healthcare personnel we need to treat hospitalized patients as potentially COVID-19 infected patients, even if the initial RT-qPCR test gave negative result. The FEAM Board draws attention to the fact that the results of this test depend on whether the virus can be traced. In some cases, patients with COVID-19 get false negative results, when the quantity of virus is too low to be detected. The RT-qPCR tests are useful at the time they are performed but they have to be repeated more than once.
The Board also emphasizes that healthcare workers mental health is endangered as they are working under extreme conditions and are being forced to prioritize care for patients with the highest probability to survive.
About FEAM
FEAM is the umbrella group of Academies of Medicine, Medical Sections of Academies of Sciences, and Academies of Pharmacy and Veterinarians. FEAM promotes cooperation between national Academies and provides a platform to formulate their collective voice on matters concerning medicine, health and biomedical research with a European dimension. Its mission is to extend to the European authorities the advisory role that national Academies exercise in their own countries with the aim to improve the health, safety and wealth of European citizens.
We encourage you to read the full statement, which is available here.
Source of information: Federation of European Academies of Medicine
