Redesign of the COVID-19 ICUs to Save the Corona Warriors

It is of utmost importance to protect our healthcare professionals, who are the most important resources for any country today. The commitment behind this article and proposal is to ensure that we do not lose even one more doctor or nurse to COVID-19. In the opinion of the authors, the current design of most of the ICUs, where the air is recirculated through the air-conditioning, is not suited for treating the highly infectious patients of COVID-19, and may be one of the causes of the thousands of infections among the healthcare workers, which has also led to the death of more than two thousands of them around the world. One is not sure whether this is the reason behind the unusual death rate of patients put on ventilators too. This article proposes a cost-effective redesign of the existing ICUs and suggestions for choosing the buildings intended to be converted to makeshift hospitals to take care of the patients infected by the corona virus. Also, where the personal protective equipment is in shortage, certain possible alternatives are suggested. There is also the need to revise the curricula for medicine and nursing to make them sufficiently aware of the risks posed by ICUs and also about lifestyle changes for positive health and prevention, rather than purely for patient care.