We report our initial experience with the management of a mixed group of patients with COVID-19 infection, admitted and treated in a designated COVID-19 centre in the Athens Metropolitan area over a 4-week period. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic presented a huge challenge to the Greek National Healthcare System and healthcare workers. Their response so far has been miraculously effective. Since there are essentially no therapeutic guidelines yet for this disease, we relied mainly on our medical intuition, our empathy for our patients and team work to do the best possible for 49 people with this infection. We present the therapeutic algorithm we gradually developed (on the job) and applied in our patients, based on continuous creative brainstorming and monitoring of the literature.
Keywords: Adult respiratory distress syndrome; Antimicrobial therapy; Bovine coronavirus; C-reactive protein; COVID-19 infection; Coinfections; Corticosteroids; Cytokine release syndrome; D-dimer; Ferritin; Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); Immunomodulatory therapy; Interleukin-1; Interleukin-6; Lung microbiota; Oral candidiasis; Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia; Soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor; Viral replication.
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