Urologists and the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a urologist’s perspective from China

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has rapidly spread all over the world1. Up till now, the epidemic situation in China is relatively stable and remains contained. However, the global spread of the epidemic seems to be unstoppable, especially in Italy, Iran, South Korea and, the USA2. Hence, we shared some of China’s experiences on what urologists could do to cope with the COVID-19. In the epidemic area, urologists may receive suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospitals. It is recommended by Wang et al. that the key role of maintaining the emergency management plans and quick responses to national and local emergencies. In the clinical practice, suspected or confirmed patients should be strictly handled following the rules of nosocomial infection. Yang et al. identified 15 (29%) patients with acute kidney injury in 52 severe COVID-19 cases3. Teleconsultation and if needed, bedside consultation can be provided by urologists. In outpatient and emergency rooms, urologists should differentiate patients with fever appropriately. Patients with fever and other symptoms of COVID-19, including cough, dyspnea, with or without epidemiological contact should be referred to the fever clinic. Urologists should participant in the initial evaluation of patients presenting with fever without other symptoms of COVID-19, such as urosepsis caused by the presence of urological devices. Great self-protection to prevent cross-infection should be adopted. Due to the overwhelming workload, frontline medical providers suffer from an increased risk of developing urinary tract infection and urolithiasis. Therefore, prevention measures, such as skin cleansing, drinking water, diet guidance, and timely urination can be provided by urologists to health-care workers.