SHANGHAI: Two Shanghai medical experts shared COVID-19 treatment and containment experience in China with their Palestinian counterparts through a video conference.
During the two-hour discussion, Palestinian experts put forward a series of questions, ranging from the treatment of infected pregnant women, plasma therapy, to the effectiveness of antiviral drugs and the timing of relaxing containment measures.
“Currently, there is no solid evidence that the virus can be transmitted from pregnant women to their children, as we did not find the virus after testing the mothers’ amniotic fluid and milk,” said Shen Yinzhong with the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center.
The treatment of pregnant women is quite similar to regular COVID-19 patients, Shen added.
Shen also said plasma from recovered patients showed some effects in treating severe COVID-19 patients in China, yet larger samples are needed to further observe the effectiveness of plasma therapy.
Sun Xiaodong, vice director of the Shanghai disease control and prevention center, said currently the containment efforts in battling the coronavirus should not be relaxed or lifted considering the accelerating COVID-19 outbreak globally and uncertainties surrounding the development of the outbreak in certain areas.
Additional caution is needed for a country or region when it decides to lift control measures, said Sun, adding that a phased manner based on differentiated local circumstances is recommended when adjusting the level of emergency response to the COVID-19 epidemic. – Agencies
