Patient in worst condition is 29. Dr. Milosevic: "Patients arrive as soon as others are discharged"

Photo: Marko Jovanovic

The deputy director of the Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Diseases in Belgrade, Ivana Milosevic, has told RTS that the age structure of patients with coronavirus is different, that there are a lot of young people, as well as those who are older.

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"At this moment, the most serious patient I am treating is 29 years old," said Milosevic. She added that most of the employees in that institution have been vaccinated.

An increase in the number of new cases is filling up red zones. This is the case also at the Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Diseases, where there are more and more examinations and admissions.

Professor Dr. Ivana Milosevic told RTS that there is a continuous increase in the number of examinations, and that two or three weeks ago the daily number of examinations was about 70 to 100, and now it is between 160 and 170 within 24 hours.

The number of admissions is moving along the same trend, the Infectious Diseases Clinic is full, there are other institutions that receive patients - VMC Karaburma and the Covid hospital in Batajnica.

"Once again, we are in a situation where as soon as one patient is discharged, a new one is admitted, but there are beds in those two institutions," said Milosevic.

The age structure of the patients is different, there are a lot of young, as well as older people.

"At this moment, the most serious patient I am treating is 29 years old. People got infected during summer vacations, during family gatherings, some have no idea where they became infected, which shows how unpredictable the disease is, it's enough for someone to be infected and not have a severe clinical picture to then infect others," said Dr. Milosevic.

Asked if the new patients have been vaccinated, she said the vast majority have not been vaccinated.

Speaking about the consequences of Covid, Milosevic points out that it is most often lung fibrosis, along with cardiac consequences in the form of myocarditis.

"We do not accept patients who have a mild form, only those who require hospital treatment, and the condition of that young man of 29 was not serious at first, but the disease has progressed and last night it got worse," said Milosevic.

She believes that one doesn't have to be motivated to get the vaccine if one works at the Infectious Diseases Clinic, it is enough to see the patients. Milosevic added that most of the employees in that clinic have been vaccinated.

Asked whether she was in favor of the obligatory vaccination of health workers, she said that there is constant talk about personal decisions, but that we must not forget that the decision not to get the jab has implications for the people around us.

According to her, since Hippocrates, the main ethical motive for those who practice medicine is that they must not harm their patients.

"The decision of health workers not to receive the vaccine against Covid, which means that they could infect patients, destroys a millennia-old ethical concept in medicine," concluded Dr. Milosevic.

(Telegraf.rs)