Q. Everyone died while waiting… What countermeasures are needed?
[Cho Dong-chan / Medical reporter (specialist): Home treatment is being discussed as an alternative now. Because only 1 out of 10 residents of the living treatment center aggravates the condition, and as the number of patients increases, the number of patients with severe condition is inevitably increasing. However, the head of the 6th hospital, who had been managing the living treatment center, suggested to the government a month ago that the limited number of medical personnel should be treated at home so that the limited medical personnel can be focused on patients with a high risk of exacerbation of severe symptoms. ]
Q. How far has the home treatment discussion progressed?
[Cho Dong-chan / medical reporter (specialist): An official from the quarantine authorities has revealed the provisional guidelines for home treatment, saying that it is not yet confirmed. Currently, only children under the age of 12 and their guardians can receive treatment at home. It broadens the target audience. The target is for patients in their 40s or younger who have a lower fatality rate than the flu, who do not have chronic diseases such as obesity or diabetes, and who do not have high-risk groups such as those in their 60s or older or chronic diseases in the family living together. We will also supply thermometers and blood oxygen saturation machines. Because the most dangerous signs of corona are high fever and low blood oxygen saturation. Since the most prescribed medicines at living treatment centers are antipyretic analgesics and cough sputum medicines, it is the position of the quarantine authorities that they can be
treated at home
.]
Q. What are the
points for
expanding and supplementing home treatment?
[Cho Dong-chan / Medical reporter (specialist): The US and Europe, where there are so many confirmed cases, are already doing it. What the quarantine authorities are now seeking to reduce such public anxiety is finding ways to provide local medical staff to home-treated patients, centering on respiratory hospitals that the region has already built. It is changing the current health center management system to focus on local medical staff. A research team at Oxford University in the UK said that the confirmed cases and patients were different. It is neither possible nor necessary to manage all the confirmed cases, so it is time to focus on a small number of patients.]
▶ A 50-year-old died at a community treatment center… "I don't go to the hospital even with a high fever"