Handbook on prevention, treatment of COVID-19 now available

A handbook on the prevention and treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been released by The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine (FAHZU), China.

The handbook is the result of the Global MediXchange for Combating COVID-10 (GMCC) programme, which is a platform to facilitate continued communication and collaboration across borders, and to provide the necessary computing capabilities and data intelligence to empower important research efforts, which are in turn provided by Alibaba Cloud Intelligence and Alibaba Health.

The 68-page open access e-book can be downloaded at https://covid-19.alibabacloud.com/. It is divided into three main parts: prevention and management; diagnosis and treatment, and nursing. It comes with a caveat, though, that the information may not be absolutely correct due to the hurried nature of publication and information collation, noted the editor Professor Tingbo Liang, Chairman of FAHZU.

The book contains comprehensive guidelines and best practices for coping with COVID-19 and explains the necessity for hospitals and other healthcare institutions to have command centres when faced with a large-scale emergency, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Important topics covered include technical strategies for addressing issues during emergencies; treatment methods for the critically ill; efficient clinical decision-making support; and best practices for departments such as outpatient clinics.

The effort was supported by the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation based on the virtue of resource sharing and the understanding that the virus cannot be beaten unless all stakeholders share their resources, know-how, and experience.

The Jack Ma Foundation, founded in 2018, is a philanthropic organization with emphasis on improving aspects of education, the environment, and public health. Meanwhile, the Alibaba Foundation, established in 2011, is a private charity fund that emphasizes on environmental protection in China and empowering the disadvantaged. [Available at https://alibabagroup.com/en/about/sustainability Accessed on 19 March]

This isn't the only COVID-19 related effort to be funded by the Jack Ma Foundation, as the body also announced its intention to donate 500,000 test kits and 1 million facemasks to the US.