[Article] We need to be prepared for new outbreaks and health crises: a perspective for ICUs
During the years of 2020 and 2021, the SARS-COV2 (COVID-19) pandemic generated an unprecedented number of patients with severe pneumonia, requiring hospitalization and intensive care. In these months we observed the saturation and collapse of health systems, and the high human and financial price of not having the ability to provide adequate time and intensive care to the most severe patients.
Great efforts were made by health professionals, governments, the private sector, among others, to expand the number of ICU beds, equip them and enable professionals to work in them. These actions partially mitigated to the pandemic catastrophe, allowing advanced life support for critically injured patients with COVID-19. At this point, with the overall reduction of cases, including severe cases, we can only imagine what the legacy of this pandemic will be for the future of ICUs.
1- We need to be ready for new health crises!
Are pandemics unlikely in the short term? Perhaps, but rapid changes (i.e., climate, ecological, microbiological) make this risk tangible. In the last 20 years, we have had different types of coronaviruses (SARS, MERS and SARS-COV2), Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya and Ebola in previously unimaginable proportions.
2- Access to health care needs to be optimized.
The pandemic has put a spotlight on and made some well-known problems of intensivists more visible. Difficult or delayed access to ICUs for patients with sepsis, trauma, stroke, heart attack, among other diseases, kill millions of people a year. Improving access to ICU beds (with a higher number of beds and improvement of screening) is essential. It is vital to train professionals who can provide quality intensive care based on the best available scientific evidence.
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