Hamad Abdullah I, Asim Muhammad, Othman Muftah A, Abuhelaiqa Essa A, Shurrab Alaedine, Elmadhoun Ihab T, Ali Al-Malki Hassan, Alkadi Mohamad M
Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar E-mail:
Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital, Doha, Qatar.
Qatar Med J. 2022 Aug 23;2022(3):38. doi: 10.5339/qmj.2022.38. eCollection 2022.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant worldwide impact since its emergence in 2019. End-stage kidney disease patients have been among the most vulnerable population affected and have a higher risk of acquiring infection and developing more severe disease. We have encountered three major COVID-19 waves in Qatar and they have required different strategies to overcome. The most recent wave was due to the Omicron variant characterized by higher transmissibility. The monthly incidence of COVID-19 infection during the Omicron wave in patients with end-stage renal disease peaked at 256 patients compared to 35 and 39 patients during the first and second waves, respectively. In addition, more than one-third of our dialysis staff became infected during this wave. Unlike the previous two waves, COVID-19 due to the Omicron variant was less severe with only 5% of hemodialysis patients requiring admission to the intensive care unit compared to 25% during the previous waves. The Omicron variant wave resulted in a crisis in our country due to the high number of non-hospitalized COVID-19 hemodialysis patients and the severe staff shortage. Several measures were taken to overcome the crisis, such as designating one facility to dialyze all COVID-19 ambulatory patients, reducing dialysis sessions to 3 hours, and introducing a fourth dialysis shift. This article describes the challenges we faced in the ambulatory hemodialysis service during the Omicron wave and the measures taken in the COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 designated facilities to combat the crisis.
自2019年出现以来,冠状病毒病(COVID-19)大流行在全球范围内产生了重大影响。终末期肾病患者一直是受影响最脆弱的人群之一,感染风险更高,病情也更严重。在卡塔尔,我们经历了三次主要的COVID-19浪潮,每次都需要采取不同的策略来应对。最近一波是由传播性更强的奥密克戎变种引起的。在奥密克戎浪潮期间,终末期肾病患者中COVID-19感染的月发病率峰值为256例,而第一波和第二波期间分别为35例和39例。此外,在这一波疫情中,我们超过三分之一的透析工作人员被感染。与前两波不同,由奥密克戎变种引起的COVID-19病情较轻,只有5%的血液透析患者需要入住重症监护病房,而前两波这一比例为25%。由于大量未住院的COVID-19血液透析患者以及严重的人员短缺,奥密克戎变种浪潮在我国引发了一场危机。我们采取了多项措施来克服这场危机,比如指定一家机构为所有COVID-19门诊患者进行透析、将透析疗程减至3小时以及增加第四班透析。本文描述了在奥密克戎浪潮期间我们在门诊血液透析服务中面临的挑战,以及在COVID-19指定设施和非COVID-19指定设施中为应对危机所采取的措施。