Therapeutic strategies for severe COVID-19: a position paper from the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (SIMIT)

Scope: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has become pandemic, reaching almost one million death worldwide. At present standard treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not well defined because the evidence, either from randomized or observational studies, with conflicting results, has led to rapid changes in treatment guidelines. Our aim was to narratively summarize the available literature on the management of COVID-19 in order to combine current evidence and interpretation of the data by experts who are treating patients in the frontline setting. Methods: The panel conducted a detailed review of the literature and eventual press releases from randomized clinical trials for each possible available treatment. Inductive PubMed search waws performed for publications relevant to the topic, including all clinical trials conducted. The result was a flowchart with treatment indications for patients with COVID-19. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Automated summary

This study summarized the literature on the management of COVID-19 to assist frontline healthcare workers in better understanding the current evidence for disease treatment and guidelines. The research team conducted a detailed review of literature and clinical trial results to develop treatment indications for different COVID-19 patients.