The management of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 in intensive care unit (ICU) in low income countries: A review article

Melesse, Debas Yaregal; Chekol, Wubie Birlie

Background The novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2 (SARS-CoV2)- causing coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), outbreak as a world health problem and was declared as a pandemic disease by the world health organization (WHO) in March 2020. Many serious findings have been observed among victims with sever acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2. Methods This review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) protocol. Search engines like PubMed and PMC through HINARI, Cochrane database, Google Scholar were used to get information about the current evidences on management of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in intensive care unit (ICU). Discussion Mortality with COVID 19 is associated with geriatric population, the presence comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, and cancer, acute respiratory failure, higher d-dimer and C-reactive protein concentrations, lower lymphocyte counts, and secondary infections. Conclusion The international recommendations on nutrition in the ICU should be followed. Some specific issues about the nutrition of the COVID-19 patients in the ICU should be emphasized. Universal infection prevention precautions (hand hygiene and use of personal protection equipment (PPE)) are invaluable during nursing of COVID 19 patients at ICU.