Source: Latest on WHO COVID-19 treatment guidelines | The Herald
Features Writer
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued new advice of the treatment of Covid -19.
In the latest development, WHO recommended that hospitalised patients should use the low-dose anticoagulants to prevent thrombosis, clots forming in blood vessels.
WHO also announced that Covid-19 patients at home can use a pulse oximetry machine to measure oxygen levels in the blood.
However, WHO emphasises and cautions that this should only be done following full patient education and with medical follow-up support where needed.
And for sufferers who are already using supplemental oxygen, WHO also endorsed the awake prone positioning, which is positioning of patients on their stomachs to increase oxygen flow.
The new guidelines also include a recommendation that healthcare professionals favour “clinical judgement over models” in making decisions for individual patients.
At the same time, WHO has also announced starting a study into the effects of “long Covid.”
Long Covid is another area the group is now focussing on. Evidence has been gathered on what it calls “the post-COVID condition”, where people who have recovered from COVID-19 continue to have longer-term issues like extreme fatigue, persistent cough and exercise intolerance.
And next month the WHO will organise a series of consultations with subject experts and patients, to reach a better understanding of the condition and its variations.
All of the updated advice and future steps are contained in the WHO COVID-19 Clinical Management, Living Guidance document which says the group would “continue to monitor the situation closely for any changes that may affect this interim guidance”.
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