ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has caused almost 2 million deaths worldwide. Both Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency have recently approved the first COVID-19 vaccines, and a few more are going to be approved soon. METHODS: Several different approaches have been used to stimulate the immune system in mounting a humoral response. As more traditional approaches are under investigation (inactivated virus vaccines, protein subunit vaccines, recombinant virus vaccines), more recent and innovative strategies have been tried (non-replicating viral vector vaccines, RNA based vaccines, DNA based vaccines). RESULTS: Since vaccinations campaigns started in December 2020 in both the US and Europe, gastroenterologists will be one of the main sources of information regarding SARS-CoV 2 vaccination for patients in their practice, including vulnerable patients such as those with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), patients with chronic liver disease, and GI cancer patients. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, we must ourselves be well educated and updated in order to provide unambiguous counseling to these categories of vulnerable patients. In this commentary, we aim to provide a comprehensive review of both approved COVID-19 vaccines and the ones still under development, and explore potential risks, benefits and prioritization of vaccination.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 Vaccines/therapeutic use , COVID-19/prevention & control , 2019-nCoV Vaccine mRNA-1273 , Ad26COVS1/therapeutic use , BNT162 Vaccine/therapeutic use , ChAdOx1 nCoV-19/therapeutic use , Gastroenterology , Gastrointestinal Neoplasms/therapy , Humans , Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/therapy , Liver Diseases/therapy , SARS-CoV-2Subject(s)
Coronavirus Infections/prevention & control , Cross Infection/prevention & control , Disease Transmission, Infectious/prevention & control , Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal/statistics & numerical data , Occupational Health , Pandemics/prevention & control , Pneumonia, Viral/prevention & control , Adult , Aged , COVID-19 , Cohort Studies , Coronavirus Infections/epidemiology , Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal/methods , Female , Humans , Infection Control/organization & administration , Italy , Male , Middle Aged , Pandemics/statistics & numerical data , Patient Safety , Pneumonia, Viral/epidemiology , Retrospective Studies , Risk Assessment , Tertiary Care CentersABSTRACT
Italy recorded its first case of confirmed acute respiratory illness because of coronavirus on February 18, 2020, soon after the initial reports in China. Since that time, Italy and nations throughout the world have adopted very stringent and severe measures to protect populations from spread of infection. Despite these measures, the number of infected people is growing exponentially, with a significant number of patients developing acute respiratory insufficiency. Endoscopy departments face significant risk for diffusion of respiratory diseases that can be spread via an airborne route, including aspiration of oral and fecal material via endoscopes. The purpose of this article is to discuss the measures, with specific focus on personal protection equipment and dress code modalities, implemented in our hospital to prevent further dissemination of COVID-19 infection.