Can Covid-19 Put More CRC Risks and Increase Death Rates?
Since the Covid-19 cases are getting higher increasingly, this could add 1% more death to the people affected by colon cancer as they are delaying colonoscopy screening under the fear of being contacted by an infected person in the medical clinics. As COVID-19 cases continue to increase and the impact of this pandemic on the health care system becomes more pronounced.
According to Epic Health Research Network analysis, colorectal cancer screenings decreased 86% from the averages before 20 January 2020. According to an IQVIA Institute of Human Data Science report, Americans are at risk of up to 18,000 missed or delayed colorectal cancer diagnoses from early March to early June.
Although this prediction should be regarded as initial, it is also conservative. Research shows that long waiting times lead to an increased risk of disease progression for treatment. This is why it is essential to have access to screening and treatment. The local colorectal cancer survival rate for the five years is 90%.
Is it safe in hospitals?
MD Anderson Cancer Center has one of the world's largest and most dense levels of immunocompromised patients. According to the CDC, COVID-19 is very dangerous for those affected by immunosuppression such as cancer.
The president, Dr. Peter WT Pisters, wrote in The Cancer Letter, that "we consider it to be our responsibility to safeguard health and safety at all times, including during the global pandemic."
The letter from Pisters provides a profound dive into the hospital's precautions to protect patients. These include: The following:
Screening of symptoms, temperature controls and all over masking to limit access points by placing a perimeter around our clinical areas.
On-site reduction of 16,500 people on campus, on average, to only 6,500 on a typical day.
Enlargement of PPE protocols to ensure that all are safe and safe.
Implement a policy of zero visitors with few exceptions and social removal requirements.
Launch a virtual care platform that will serve patients who cannot travel, and access the national network of hospitals of MD Anderson to offer care to certain patients close to home.
Advocate access to projections
A group of prevention and screening experts have recently convened to provide common response and national guidelines to improve colonoscopy screening rates during the COVID-19 era, the Alliance and the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable — an organization established by the American Cancer Society and by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
By the end of June, organizations, which inspired a unified front in their efforts to advocate and access life-saving tests, developed colorectal cancer screening guidance for medical organizations.
This guide enables supporters to work together in the proper, safer and equal way revitalizing screening work "Reigniting Colorectal Cancer Screening as Communities in the Face and Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic"
Michael Sapienza, CEO of the Alliance, told us, "We can be safe in a pandemic and save lives. "COVID-19 requires that new solutions be found to encourage and enable all the community to conduct CRC screening tests. Instead of COVID-19, we demand that health providers and organizations not lose sight of CRC risk.
Visit us at Screen The City in OKC for digestive diseases. We are maintaining all the protocols to keep you safe in this pandemic. Our doctors are following all the health guidelines and the clinic is regularly sanitized. Visit us and make a schedule for colon cancer screening.
**Disclaimer: This blog content does not intend to offer a doctor’s advice and mentions no relationship between any patient and the care provider.
