Abstract

CARNEIRO-LEAO, Leonor; AMARAL, Luís; COIMBRA, Alice  and  PLACIDO, José Luís. Managing an Allergy and Clinical Immunology Department in a portuguese reference COVID-19 hospital during pandemic contingency. Rev Port Imunoalergologia [online]. 2020, vol.28, n.3, pp.161-171. ISSN 0871-9721.  https://doi.org/10.32932/rpia.2020.09.040.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic spread worldwide in a short period causing an extremely high number of infected people and numerous fatalities. Portugal as many other countries declared a State of National Emergency and applied quarantine measures soon after the WHO declaration of pandemic. As result we had to deal with dramatic and unexpected changesaffecting our clinical activity on an unprecedented scale. A Contingency Plan was immediately planned, comprising new approaches and strategies, to assure the health care needs of our allergic patients and the safety of both health care providers and patients. Additionally, we needed to consider the intensive participation of most of the doctors and nurses of our Department in COVID-19 related activities. The Contingency Plan was also particularly difficult to elaborate since no recommendations or guidelines were available at that time. We believe that sharing this experience with other Allergy and Clinical Immunology Departments may prove to be useful in case of a second wave of COVID-19 infection or another future pandemic.

Keywords : Allergic diseases; COVID-19; immunoallergology; contingency plan.

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