Dr. Xu Xiaomin, a Chinese doctor dispatched to Wuhan in the first wave of medical personnel sent to the city to combat Covid 19 spoke to WSCRC members and friends on March 31. Dr. Xu, a specialist in nosocomial infection control, microbiological testing, and drug resistant bacterial infections was assigned to Wuhan No. 4 hospital for a period of two months.
Dr. Xu shared some of his personal experiences of what it was like to be working at the heart of the outbreak. He also elaborated on some of his ideas on where governments should put their efforts to stem the virus. He noted that he would focus on three areas: resources, technology and training. For example, without sufficient quantities of PPEs, ventilators, and hospital beds, the virus can quickly overwhelm the health care system. In the area of technology, he noted that rapid testing is particularly important such that high quality testing kits are crucial. Dr. Xu also commented that not only doctors and nurses needed training to cope with the new virus; hospital administrators also needed to be trained as new processes and procedures were required to cope with the pandemic.
He noted that China’s method of treatment evolved over the two months and that various treatments were developed depending on the severity of the patients’ conditions. Although he is trained in Western medicine, he noted that in many cases Chinese traditional medicine appeared to be effective.
Over 50 people participated in this webinar and many questions were posed to Dr. Xu over the 90 minutes of the session.