How to protect the elderly, confined to nursing homes in the face of the coronavirus epidemic? Since the beginning of the week, the ARS (Regional Health Agency) of the Occitanie region has implemented a protocol to limit the cases of infections in these establishments, by identifying the patients, then the caregivers who could be at the origin of contamination. An innovative strategy, which could be generalized throughout the territory.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation on Wednesday
Locate the caregiver zero
The principle is simple: first locate the sick resident (s), then the caregiver zero, that could have brought the virus into this confined space, since the visits of relatives are prohibited for two weeks. For the first signs, an investigation is carried out for this, and patients are isolated.
>> PODCAST - Coronavirus: find all the answers to your questions here
Concerning the residents, "there can be signs which are quite misleading, in particular non respiratory signs, with diarrhea, confusional syndromes which can be announcers of a Covid", explains Professor Yves Rolland, one of two heads of geriatrics from the Toulouse and Montpellier teaching hospitals at the origin of this protocol.
"You have to isolate them, monitor them closely, and, if they show symptoms after seven days, you have to test them," he said. "And then spot the caregivers ... This caregiver zero, let him get out of the nursing home so that he does not contaminate the others." Mobile CHU teams must then carry out the tests on site.
"Prepare more serenely"
Within establishments, knowing the procedure to be followed reassures. "We know what to apply in case of suspicion, in case of diagnosis and for the care of the person who would be diagnosed", testifies to Europe 1 Véronique Germa, who manages the Maisonneuve residence, in Villefranche- de-Lauragais, in Haute-Garonne. "It allows us to prepare more serenely."
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Paid leave, RTT, sick leave: what changes the state of health emergency
> What do we know about chloroquine, the treatment that is debating?
> What to do if you are sick, but not coronavirus?
> Why you will have to be patient to be reimbursed for a canceled trip
> Homemade bread, short circuits ... Our solutions to continue to eat well during confinement
> Sex: how to manage abstinence during confinement?
In nursing homes in Occitania, coordinating doctors also have access to a hotline, to benefit from expertise in videoconferencing. With only one goal: to gain as much time as possible, to avoid cases multiplying and the situation of an establishment becoming uncontrollable.