Macau patients have low risk of permanent lung damage, says health official

Doctor Lo Iek Long of the Conde de São Januário Hospital said yesterday that, for the time being, patients who are infected with Covid-19 and have been discharged or are undergoing treatment have a low risk of developing permanent lung damage due to pneumonia.
Lo’s information came in response to a question from the media on the topic during the daily press conference at the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center.
Explaining in more detail, the physician said, “At the moment, there is a large number of patients in Macau that are still in treatment, so we are still a long way from knowing if they will have any after-effects.”
“[However], analyzing in general terms, only in serious cases of pneumonia that lasted for a long period can some secondary effects arise. If the patients do not develop pneumonia and only have symptoms of the virus infection, the probability of developing secondary effects is lower,” Lo said.
“We are analyzing the data from other countries and what we have realized is that only in the cases of serious pneumonia which require the use of ventilators is the probability of after-effects higher.”
According to the statistics released, from the 44 Covid-19 cases reported in Macau, the large majority developed only light or mild symptoms of the disease and only one patient, the 18th case of the infection, has been considered a serious case requiring the use of a ventilator.
The case refers to a 50-year-old woman who returned to Macau from the U.S. with her son, who is also a patient (case 19). Her health worsened between March 24 and 29.
Meanwhile, questioned on whether Macau would consider the recommendation from the central government to use traditional Chinese medicine as a treatment for the disease, Lo said that such an option has not been excluded, noting that there are several medical options on the table.
The physician also noted that according to the recommendations, more than two kinds of medicines should not be used to treat each patient. For the time being, Macau is considering the health situation of each patient as well as the experience gathered by other regions to decide.
The official stressed that Macau would prioritize using medicines “that have proven to be more effective and that have [recorded] the best results worldwide.”