2 research outputs found
COVID-19 IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AREA: EPIDEMIOLOGY AND MAIN DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS - A NARRATIVE REVIEW
In December 2019, Chinese researchers identified a novel coronavirus in humans that caused acute respiratory syndrome—
officially called coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as of February 11, 2020. At the beginning of the outbreak, the Mediterranean
countries seemed to be spared from the health and social disaster happened in China. Quickly the spread of the virus ran faster than
forecasts and Italy was unfortunately followed by Spain, France and other countries counting many cases and deaths. The World
Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11th, 2020. A retrospective analysis of big data from Google Trend,
using an infodemiology approach, shows how internet traffic search on COVID-19 may figure on the spread curve.
The clinical aspects of COVID-19 raises from poor of mild symptomatic patients to severe respiratory disease which can quickly
lead patients to respiratory failure and admission to intensive care units. Multi-organ symptoms and different types of involvement
other than respiratory have been described.
Nowadays the vaccination is still under investigation and there is not a specific treatment approved for COVID–19, but the
literature highlights the role of Cloroquine and its less toxic derivative Hydroxychloroquine in the therapeutical management of
COVID-19. Those drugs have been proposed as a potential treatment for COVID-19 and clinical trials are undergoing to evaluate this
drug. However these drugs have known oxidative properties that could decrease glutathione levels and may cause severe hemolysis in
G6PD-deficient patients. Deficient G6PD alleles are distributed worldwide; a conservative estimate is that at least 400 million people
carry a mutation in the G6PD gene causing deficiency, the Mediterranean most frequent variant is a class II allele (1-10% of residual
activity). With worldwide spread of COVID-19, also in regions with a high prevalence of G6PD deficiency, physicians should be aware
of this possible correlation
Clinical nutrition in surgical oncology: Young AIOM-AIRO-SICO multidisciplinary national survey on behalf of NutriOnc research group
Malnutrition is a common condition in cancer patients which is usually associated with functional limitations, as well as increased morbidity and mortality. Based on the support of the young sections of Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM), Italian Association of Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology (AIRO) and Italian Society of Surgical Oncology (SICO) merged into the NutriOnc Research Group, we performed a multidisciplinary national survey with the aim to define the awareness of nutritional issues among healthcare professionals delivering anticancer care. The questionnaire was organized in four sections, as follows: Knowledge and practices regarding Nutritional Management of cancer patients; Timing of screening and assessment of Nutritional Status; Nutritional Treatment and prescription criteria; Immunonutrition and educational topics. The modules focused on esophagogastric, hepato-bilio-pancreatic and colorectal malignancies. Overall, 215 physicians completed the survey. As regards the management of Nutritional Status of cancer patients, many responders adopted the ERAS program (49.3%), while a consistent number of professionals did not follow a specific validated nutritional care protocol (41.8%), mainly due to lack of educational courses (14.5%) and financial support (15.3%). Nearly all the included institutions had a multidisciplinary team (92%) to finalize the treatment decision-making. Cancer patients routinely underwent nutritional screening according to 57.2% of interviewed physicians. The timing of nutritional assessment was at diagnosis (37.8%), before surgery (25.9%), after surgery (16.7%), before radiochemotherapy (13.5%) and after radiochemotherapy (7%). Most of the responders reported that nutritional status was assessed throughout the duration of cancer treatments (55.6%). An important gap between current delivery and need of nutritional assessment persists. The development of specific and defined care protocols and the adherence to these tools may be the key to improving nutritional support management in clinical practice