WUHAN (Caixin Global): It took only a few minutes for Dr Peng Zhiyong to make a decision that he knew could be highly risky - admitting a patient diagnosed with 'unknown viral pneumonia'.
Medical staff work in the isolated intensive care unit in a hospital in Wuhan on Feb 6, 2020. - EPA
The patients' mysterious, infectious pneumonia later proved to be caused by a new strain of coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV. Since December the disease quickly spread from Wuhan to the rest of China and beyond. On Jan 3, Dr Peng learned that gene sequencing results from BGI Group found that the new virus shares 80 per cent of the genetic code of the SARS virus.
Now the 150-member team of South Central Hospital's ICU department led by Dr Peng has been fighting against the virus for more than a month. All medical workers have given up holidays and worked in shifts to keep the ICU running at full capacity. In the face of shortages of protective gear, doctors and nurses have to reduce food and water consumption while working to avoid leaving the quarantine zone and changing suits.
"We still understand very little about the pathogenesis of the virus and are not clear about the actual cause of the multiple organ failures," said Dr Jiang Li, ICU director at Beijing Xuanwu Hospital who is currently in Wuhan. It makes the rescue and treatment of severe patients a challenge, Dr Jiang said.
As of Jan 26, about 60 of the Red Cross Hospital's medical workers had either been diagnosed with the coronavirus or were under observation. The rest of the staff, no matter from which department, were transferred to the respiratory department after a short training. They were"like cannon fodder" rushing to a battlefield, Dr Huang said.
But on Feb 5, Dr Li told Caixin in a message that his condition worsened. In the early morning of Feb 7, Dr Li died after an hours-long rescue attempt in the ICU. "People with strong immune systems may recover after two weeks, but the elderly and those with basic health issues could worsen to respiratory failure and other organ failures," Dr Peng said."The second week is the watershed."
"About one-third of patients I observed showed systemic inflammatory response syndrome that led to multiple organ failure and critical conditions," Dr Peng said.According to medical experts and frontline doctors, 15 to 20 per cent of new coronavirus patients could develop severe conditions, and among them 25 to 30 per cent worsen to critical condition.
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