Herr Doktor Çelik, we talk regularly about your work as a senior physician in the isolation ward for Covid-19 patients at the Darmstadt Clinic. What is the current situation?
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As expected, there is more going on on our ward. We no longer treat non-Covid patients here, but only confirmed cases and suspected cases. For that we need the whole station again. We currently have four Covid patients in the normal and four in the intensive care unit, as well as a high number of suspected cases every day. We expected this increase, it came almost exactly two weeks after the incidence – i.e. the number of new corona infections in seven days – rose here in the circles. 10 to 14 days later, the first patients with severe disease end up in the hospital. We know that if you keep a close eye on the incidence and age distribution, you can prepare well. The hospitals in Frankfurt will be With the current numbers, definitely prepare for itthat more patients will come back soon.
So many that you have to worry about capacity?
In the cities where the incidence is rising so rapidly, it is mainly young people who are infected so far. And we tend not to see them in the hospital. However, there is a risk that other age groups will soon also be more severely affected. Then more people would come to the hospital again. The challenge is to keep protecting the risk populations as the numbers rise. We are preparing for more suspected and positive cases, but fortunately we are still a long way from reaching the limits of our capabilities. But there is a lot more to do than three weeks ago.
Where did the patients who are now being treated by you become infected?
It is a combination of the predictable and the unpredictable, which is now characteristic of Corona. The chains of infection are partly incomprehensible: We have patients who credibly assure that they actually never left their homes for fear of infection because they have previous illnesses. You may have been to your family doctor once, but they pay a lot of attention to hygiene. In any case, we are no longer in the situation that primarily affects those returning to travel. Our patients are between 40 and 85 years old, some of them had previous illnesses, some of them are young and were previously healthy. It also happens that this disease takes a very severe course in young patients. Anyone who works on such a station can confirm that.
Do the patients usually get to the hospital on time?
You don’t come as early as I would like. We currently have the Remdesivir a drug that shows the best effect in the first five days after the onset of symptoms and severe progression. More than half of the patients who have come to us in the past few weeks have been late for remdesivir treatment. You have had symptoms for seven to ten days, then remdesivir no longer helps.
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