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General Management of Patients with Global Communicable Diseases for Shipping Companies - Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

21/03/2020 Epidemiology

Dagoberto Rodríguez González, MD

At Costamed’s Hospitals we have a specific process to manage Global Communicable Diseases, among which we permanently highlight Influenza, Tuberculosis, Measles, and Ebola as an international health concern, however, given the current outbreak in China of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), it is essential to take the following measures for the protection of every patient and crew member

The first thing we must consider is the identification of Alarm Cases, that is why we perform a triage on every patient who comes to Costamed with possible symptoms such as:

  • Fever
  • Cough
  • Runny nose
  • Headache
  • Joint pain
  • Muscle pain
  • Decay (prostration)
  • Pain when swallowing
  • Chest pain
  • Abdominal pain
  • Diarrhea
  • Rash on face or chest

These symptoms do not mean that every time a patient presents a headache, he/she will be isolated; however, remember that in the initial evaluation of Triage, we investigate all data. In cases when the patient presents a cough, we will provide a mouth mask at the front desk, and only when Triage medical staff identifies suspicious factors of a Global Communicable Disease, we will take isolation measurements for the protection of patients and staff.

For the specific case of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), we will investigate all patients who have recently traveled to China (specifically to the Wuhan City area).

Therefore, for this or any Communicable Global Disease, if your medical staff identifies warning signs, including coughing, it would be beneficial to give the patient mouth covers. In the case of a probable Novel Coronavirus infection (2019-nCoV), those patients who traveled to China in the last month need to be identifiable, especially those who were in the Wuhan city area.

We will leave the links of the primary communications or information regarding the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV); as we obtain the data, we will update it in chronological order.

Official Notices in Chronological Order (Top most recent):

  • Permanent Update. Global Confirmed Cases – Real Time. Click Here
  • Permanent Update.  Elsevier’s free health and medical research on novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Click Here
  • Permanent Update. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – WHO. Click Here
  • Permanent Update. Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) – WHO. Click Here
  • Permanent Update. Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation reports. Click Here

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