NEW YORK: Guidelines for treating novel coronavirus patients drawn up by workers at a medical school hospital in New York has been used for treatment at a university hospital in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan.

Workers at the New York and Fukushima school hospitals have been connected through exchange activities that started as part of assistance to areas damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which hit Fukushima hard.

The guidelines were sent by Takahiro Yanagisawa, professor of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, to Fukushima Medical University.

Yanagisawa, 52, also head of the Japanese Medical Society of America, has supported medical activities in disaster areas since the immediate aftermath of the March 2011 disaster.

Promoting comprehensive disaster medical care that integrates psychological and physical care, he has supported disaster victims in Japan as well as families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Yanagisawa has also been involved in student exchange programs between the New York and Fukushima schools.

Treatment manuals have been prepared for many diseases, but medical workers around the world have taken a trial-and-error approach to address the novel coronavirus.

After the number of coronavirus patients increased explosively from March, workers at the Mount Sinai Hospital drew up guidelines detailing treatment options on the basis of their experiences of treating more than 10,000 patients.

They also created a manual for antithrombotic therapy, including how to isolate people who tested positive and an algorithm diagram used as guidance for the dosage amount of anticlotting agents. The manual has been sent to Fukushima Medical University and others.

Fukushima Medical University has translated the guidelines and manual into Japanese to share information among its workers.

Shunichi Yamashita, head of the university's international exchange center, said, "There is a wide gap between the numbers of patients in New York and Japan and individual responses are also different, but they (the treatment guidelines and manual) were very useful in setting up a mechanism for accepting patients with severe symptoms."

"Dr. Yanagisawa has offered a helping hand to Fukushima since immediately after the disaster," Yamashita said. "We are very grateful as his consistent support for disaster victims has led to the sharing of treatment guidelines for coronavirus patients."

JIJI Press