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WHO issues guidelines on how to manage pandemic

Just two of 10 persons who get infected with coronavirus will develop severe illness that may require hospitalisation, the global health body has revealed.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) further says only five per cent of those infected will require services of an intensive care unit.

Up to 81 per cent of those infected will develop mild or uncomplicated illnesses.

WHO, in its guidelines on how to deal with the dreaded viral infection, suggests that severe cases of coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, may lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis and septic shock, multi-organ failure, which include kidney and cardiac related.

“Older age and co-morbid disease have been reported as risk factions for death,” said WHO.

WHO said there have been relatively few cases have been reported of infants confirmed with Covid-19.

In the guidelines dated March 13, 2020, WHO has categorised six clinical syndromes associated with coronavirus infection. They are mild illness, pneumonia, severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, and septic shock.

Fever, uncomplicated respiratory tract infection, fatigue, cough (with or without sputum), muscle pain, diarrhoea, sore throat, nasal congestion or headache are some of the symptoms for mild illnesses associated with the virus.

Global health body warns of symptoms due to physiologic adaptations of pregnancy or adverse pregnancy events, such as dyspnea, fever, GI-symptoms.

It is at the sepsis stage that patients may develop organ dysfunction, which is caused by the body’s extreme response to the viral infection.

“Signs of organ dysfunction include altered mental status, difficult or fast breathing, low oxygen saturation, reduced urine output, fast heart rate, weak pulse, cold extremities or low blood pressure, skin mottling, or laboratory evidence of coagulopathy, thrombocytopenia, acidosis, high lactate, or hyperbilirubinemia,” reads the guidelines.

So far, there is no vaccine or a specific treatment regimen for coronavirus.

Doctors are, however, managing the clinical syndromes associated with the illnesses as early as possible to ensure the patients’ chances of survival are increased.

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