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COVID-19: Precautionary Guidelines for Ophthalmologists

Several coronaviruses can infect humans, and the globally endemic human coronaviruses, HCoV-229E (human coronavirus 229E), HCoV-NL63 (human coronavirus NL63), and others, tend to cause mild respiratory diseases. The zoonotic Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and severe acute re...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: ALBalawi, Hani B
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7320643/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32607305
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.8815
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author ALBalawi, Hani B
author_facet ALBalawi, Hani B
author_sort ALBalawi, Hani B
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description Several coronaviruses can infect humans, and the globally endemic human coronaviruses, HCoV-229E (human coronavirus 229E), HCoV-NL63 (human coronavirus NL63), and others, tend to cause mild respiratory diseases. The zoonotic Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type1 (SARS-CoV-1) have high fatality rates. In December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified by Chinese authorities about an outbreak of pneumonia before the causative organism was identified in January 2020 as a novel coronavirus family. The WHO refers to the virus as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Within several weeks, the outbreak has become an emergency, and many countries have since been affected. The method of transmission is not yet fully known but is thought to be mainly respiratory. Healthcare providers, particularly ophthalmologists, are at high risk of a COVID-19 infection through unprotected contact with eye secretions during routine ophthalmic examinations that involve the use of direct ophthalmoscopy and slit-lamp examinations, which are usually performed in a setting that allows for close doctor-patient contact. In light of these, specific measures are needed from an ophthalmic point of view to control the COVID-19 outbreak and to protect health care providers.
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spelling pubmed-73206432020-06-29 COVID-19: Precautionary Guidelines for Ophthalmologists ALBalawi, Hani B Cureus Ophthalmology Several coronaviruses can infect humans, and the globally endemic human coronaviruses, HCoV-229E (human coronavirus 229E), HCoV-NL63 (human coronavirus NL63), and others, tend to cause mild respiratory diseases. The zoonotic Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type1 (SARS-CoV-1) have high fatality rates. In December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified by Chinese authorities about an outbreak of pneumonia before the causative organism was identified in January 2020 as a novel coronavirus family. The WHO refers to the virus as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Within several weeks, the outbreak has become an emergency, and many countries have since been affected. The method of transmission is not yet fully known but is thought to be mainly respiratory. Healthcare providers, particularly ophthalmologists, are at high risk of a COVID-19 infection through unprotected contact with eye secretions during routine ophthalmic examinations that involve the use of direct ophthalmoscopy and slit-lamp examinations, which are usually performed in a setting that allows for close doctor-patient contact. In light of these, specific measures are needed from an ophthalmic point of view to control the COVID-19 outbreak and to protect health care providers. Cureus 2020-06-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7320643/ /pubmed/32607305 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.8815 Text en Copyright © 2020, ALBalawi et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Ophthalmology
ALBalawi, Hani B
COVID-19: Precautionary Guidelines for Ophthalmologists
title COVID-19: Precautionary Guidelines for Ophthalmologists
title_full COVID-19: Precautionary Guidelines for Ophthalmologists
title_fullStr COVID-19: Precautionary Guidelines for Ophthalmologists
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19: Precautionary Guidelines for Ophthalmologists
title_short COVID-19: Precautionary Guidelines for Ophthalmologists
title_sort covid-19: precautionary guidelines for ophthalmologists
topic Ophthalmology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7320643/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32607305
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.8815
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