A MESSAGE FROM THE ESCRS PRESIDENT
21 March 2020
Dear Colleagues Today our ESCRS newsletter focuses on France, where the medical community is coping with a substantial outbreak of the coronavirus, especially in the northeast of the country (le Grand-Est, Alsace), on the border with Italy and more recently in Paris. ESCRS past president Béatrice Cochener-Lamard has shared with us some of the protocols and guidelines put in place in her country. We are committed to keeping you well informed in the difficult times ahead. The ESCRS EuroTimes home page www.eurotimes.org has been deployed as an information repository on COVID-19 for ophthalmologists. Here you will find a library of documents, journal papers and correspondence from our colleagues around the world. I am very gratified by the messages I have received since we began this newsletter last weekend, from colleagues in Italy thanking us for our support, colleagues in Egypt reaching out with their own stories and Prof Lai, from Hong Kong who published one of the first peer-reviewed papers on controlling this infection offering his support and advice. Please stay safe and well.
Prof. dr Rudy MMA Nuijts
ESCRS President
CONTAINMENT IS THE ONLY OPTION
Bahram Bodaghi MD, PHD, FEBO, spoke with EuroTimes editor Sean Henahan, providing his perspective on COVID-19 as a specialist in inflammatory and infectious disease of the eye. He is the Chair, Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at Sorbonne University in Paris, France.
He is the Secretary General of the French Society of Ophthalmology. Professor Bodaghi says containment is the only option if we want to stop the spread of the virus. "Strict containment is the real key to success. We will need strategic approaches if you want to succeed rapidly. You cannot compare Europe to Hong Kong or Singapore. You have many big countries across Europe with very little coordination among health authorities. So far each country is trying to resist the virus by itself, making its decisions based on its health capacities, and social characteristics. This will probably change in the future," said Prof Bodaghi. " It is important to realize that COVID- 19
is not the flu. What we see in Italy, France and Spain, where the pandemic is heating, is that it is not the rate of mortality itself, it is the disorganization of the health care systems. For example, you have much more risk of dying from a myocardial infarction in these areas today because most of the ICU beds are taken up with COVID patients. In ophthalmology we will probably see patients coming in with much more severe lesions, and levels of disease than before because patients are in containment at home, not getting their injections, not getting to see their ophthalmologists," he said.
FRENCH OPHTHALMOLOGISTS BELIEVE
IN THE FUTURE
On Tuesday, March 17, French President Emmanuel Macron declared a 15-day lockdown, ordering people to stay at home unless they need to buy groceries, travel to work, exercise or seek medical care. Béatrice Cochener-Lamard MD, PhD, told EuroTimes how the lockdown and the COVID-19 crisis are affecting ophthalmology and provided her insights on implications for the future. Professor Cochener-Lamard is Professor and Chair, Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital of Brest, Brest, France. In a wide-ranging interview Professor Cochener-Lamard discussed how the lockdown is affecting French ophthalmologists in their daily practices and what the future holds for French ophthalmology.
PREVENT INFECTION; MAXIMISE PATIENT CARE
As France moves into full lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the French Society of Ophthalmology (SFO) held a special webcast for its members to help them deal with the crisis. A panel of experts gave an overview of the current situation in France and offered advice to help their colleagues both in the public health sector and in private practice to protect themselves and continue to administer care for their patients under exceptionally difficult circumstances The specific risks to ophthalmologists and the best ways to prevent infection and maximise patient care were presented by Prof Isabelle Cochereau of the Rothschild Foundation Hospital in Paris.
These recommendations were issued to ophthalmologists in France on March 15.
FRENCH ASSESSMENT OF PEOPLE AT RISK
The Haut Conseil de la santé publique (French High Council for Public Health) HCSP has drawn up a list of those most at risk.
SFO ISSUES INJECTION GUIDELINES
The French Society of Ophthalmology (SFO), through its president Prof Laurent Kodjikian, has issued specific guidelines to its members concerning the administration of intravitreal injections (IVI) in light of the COVID-19 epidemic.
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