GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday issued new clinical advice for treating patients with COVID-19, including those with persistent symptoms after recovery, and also said it recommends the use of low doses of anticoagulants. to prevent blood clots from forming.
“The other things in the guide that are new are that patients with COVID-19 at home should use pulse oximetry, which measures oxygen levels, so that you can identify if a particular home is deteriorating and it would be better to have hospital care. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a UN briefing in Geneva.
The WHO advised clinicians to put patients in the waking position in front, demonstrating that they improve oxygen flow, she said.
We also recommend, we suggest the use, of low-dose anticoagulants to prevent the formation of blood clots in the blood vessels. We suggest using more lower doses than higher doses, because higher doses can lead to other problems, ”said Harris.
She added that a team of independent experts led by WHO, currently in the center of Wuhan in China, where the first human cases were detected in December 2019, will leave the quarantine in the next two days to continue working with Chinese researchers. on the origins of the virus.
She declined to comment on reports of delays in introducing vaccines into the European Union. She said she had no specific data and the WHO’s priority was to vaccinate health workers in all countries in the first 100 days of the year.
AstraZeneca, which has developed its team with Oxford University, said on Friday that the EU could not meet the agreed supply targets by the end of March.
Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge