Post-acute and long-COVID-19 symptoms in patients with mild diseases: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: It is expected that GPs are increasingly confronted with a large group of patients with symptoms persisting three weeks after initial symptoms of a mild (managed in the outpatient setting) COVID-19 infection. Currently, research on these persistent symptoms mainly focuses on patients with severe infections (managed in an inpatient setting) whereas patients with mild disease are rarely studied. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this systematic review was to create an overview of the nature and frequency of persistent symptoms experienced by patients after mild COVID-19 infection. METHODS: Systematic literature searches were performed in Pubmed, Embase and PsychINFO on 2 February 2021. Quantitative studies, qualitative studies, clinical lessons and case reports were considered eligible designs. RESULTS: In total, nine articles were included in this literature review. The frequency of persistent symptoms in patients after mild COVID-19 infection ranged between 10% and 35%. Symptoms persisting after a mild COVID-19 infection can be distinguished into physical, mental and social symptoms. Fatigue was the most frequently described persistent symptom. Other frequently occurring persistent symptoms were dyspnoea, cough, chest pain, headache, decreased mental and cognitive status and olfactory dysfunction. In addition, it was found that persisting symptoms after a mild COVID-19 infection can have major consequences for work and daily functioning. CONCLUSION: There is already some evidence that symptoms of mild COVID-19 persist after 3 weeks in a third of patients. However, there is a lack of data about symptoms persisting after 3 months (long-COVID). More research is needed to help GPs in managing long-COVID.

How to use quality indicators for antimicrobial stewardship in your hospital: a practical example on outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy.

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) teams are responsible for performing an AMS programme in their hospitals that aims to improve the quality of antibiotic use. Measuring the quality of antimicrobial use is a core task of a stewardship team. Measurement provides insight into the current quality of antibiotic use and allows for the establishment of goals for improvement. Yet, a practical description of how such a quality measurement using quality indicators (QIs) should be performed is lacking. OBJECTIVES: To provide practical guidance on how a stewardship team can use QIs to measure the quality of antibiotic use in their hospital and identify targets for improvement. SOURCES: General principles from implementation science, peer-reviewed publications, and experience from clinicians and researchers with AMS experience. CONTENT: We provide step-by-step guidance on how AMS teams can use QIs to measure the quality of antibiotic use. The principles behind each step are explained and illustrated with the description and results of an audit of patients receiving outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy in four Dutch hospitals. IMPLICATIONS: Improving the quality of antibiotic use is impossible without first gaining insight into that quality by performing a measurement with validated QIs. This step-by-step practice example of how to use quality indicators in a hospital will help AMS teams to identify targets for improvement. This enables them to perform their AMS programme more effectively and efficiently.