COVID-19 is a newly defined disease, affecting the respiratory system. It is caused by a novel coronavirus, called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The growing importance of the outbreak led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020 and to later officially describe it as a pandemic on 11 March 2020 [1]. Italy was the first European country to be heavily impacted by COVID-19, with the number of cases and deaths caused by the virus surging in the months of March and April 2020 [2]. Ophthalmologists represent a high-risk category for the spread of the infection, mainly because the examination demands close contact with the patient, exposing the clinician to tear, conjunctival secretions and to aerosol droplets [3].

References

1. Ghebreyesus TA. “WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 11”. (2020).
2. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. COVID-19 Situation update worldwide (2020).
3. Resident physician exposure to novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV, SARS-CoV-2) within New York City during exponential phase of COVID-19 pandemic: Report of the New York City Residency Program Breazzano MP. “Directors COVID-19 Research Group”. medRxiv (2020).
4. Romano MR., et al. “Facing COVID-19 in ophthalmology department”. Current Eye Research6(2020).
5. Pirraglia MP., et al. “Retinal involvement and ocular findings in COVID-19 pneumonia patients”. Scientific Report1 (2020): 17419.
6. Desautels JD., et al. “Risks Posed to Corneal Transplant Recipients by COVID-19-Affected Donors”. Ophthalmology Therapy3 (2020): 371-379.

Citation

Citation: Leopoldo Spadea and Andrea Iannaccone. “COVID-19 and Ophthalmology Practice at University Hospital “Policlinico Umberto I” in Rome”. Acta Scientific Ophthalmology 4.1 (2021): 01-02.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Leopoldo Spadea and Andrea Iannaccone. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.