COVID-19: The Italian experience

Abstract

Italy was among the most and earlier affected countries by COVID-19 in the world. We report the Italian experience with the pandemic. The dermatologic community immediately reduced any type of activities to 80-90% of outpatient consultations both in the public hospitals and in private offices. The Italian Society of Dermatology and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (SIDeMaST) and the Italian Forensic Dermatologic Society (SIDeLF) supported the dermatologic community by recommendations available as newsletters (vademecum) for routine management of dermatologic patients either in the hospital or private setting. We have provided an overview of the skin manifestations from the pandemic, including those consequents to the misuse of safety measures. We also have evaluated the recently developed research projects on patients treated with biologics for psoriasis (PSO-BIO-COVID), atopic dermatitis (DA-COVID), and hidradenitis suppurativa (HS-ada-COVID19), as well as the registries (SKIN-COVID-19, PED-COVID-19) for various skin diseases impacted by COVID-19.

Exposure risk management: Personal protective equipment and the risk of accidents occurring during aerosol generating procedures applied to COVID-19 patients

“…We found in the literature that COVID-19 could be spread through aerosol/ aerated solids, fluid from human secretions, droplets from normal breathing, coughing, sneezing and surface contact, and, thus, it is considered to be very contagious [ 3 ], and that nurses are extremely exposed to COVID-19 since they have a direct contact with COVID-19 patients, especially in the context of AGPs [ 9 , 12 , 31 ]. In managing the health workers exposure risk, and to avoid any contamination with COVID-19 during aerosols, the use of PPE is recommended for eye, face and head protection, together with reusable equipment (glasses, visors or face shields) [ 17 , 20 ]. Goggles are extremely important in protecting the exposed conjunctiva from infected droplets and aerosols from patients, while aprons, gowns and coveralls offer full protection to HCWs [ 10 , 25 ].…”

“…An adequate PPE is strongly recommended against the risk of HCW getting infected with COVID-19 [ 9 , 19 ]. To avoid any contamination with COVID-19 during aerosols, PPE is recommended for eyes, face and head protection, together with reusable equipment (glasses, visors or face shields) [ 17 , 20 ]. A study of 85% of HCWs being involved in AGPs showed that hand hygiene and PPE were the measures having protected them against COVID-19 infection [ 9 ].…”

“…Previous studies adressed the challenge to further analyzes related to PPEs [ 37 ], others pointed out that PPE is generally used at an acceptable level [ 36 ], while others focused on the importance of PPE wearing by HCWs [ 20 , 22 , 30 ].…”

Rural Healthcare Enterprises in the Vortex of COVID-19: The Impact of Public Policies on the Internal and External Environment

“…The turnover during the first phase of the pandemic was reduced and it only started increasing just before and during the second phase. Studies conducted in other countries show a similar turnover reduction during the first phase of the pandemic (Musumeci et al 2021;Kruse and Jeurissen 2020). A shift became particularly apparent when public hospitals started turning large departments into COVID-19 treatment units and patients started being referred to the private healthcare sector (Pang et al 2020).…”