When associate professor Anthony Byrne first heard news trickling in about an infectious disease at the beginning of 2020, there was an element of fear at St Vincent’s.
“We knew what was coming,” he says.
“[A colleague in the north of Italy] was telling us about her experiences there, with people dying in the corridors – this infectious disease that causes pneumonia and there’s no treatment … We were really anxious.
“We’ve been treating Covid patients for 18 months now,” he says. “We’ve found these patients to be quite challenging to treat and professionally it’s been really difficult.”
Pre-Covid, Byrne ran tuberculosis treatment at the hospital and travelled the world treating the drug-resistant disease.
“I would much have preferred to have TB last year because I know all about TB, I can treat TB, but Covid, at that time, was very different,” he says.
“I was scared because this was a disease that we didn’t know anything about, we didn’t have any treatment.”
Months down the track, with the rollout of the vaccine, Byrne says it has been an “honour” to be on the frontline of the pandemic in Sydney.
“That’s really what we’ve been, on the frontline of this war, treating these patients and their family and other staff,” he says.
“It affects you both as a doctor but also personally, because you’ve got to bring it home. A bit like a soldier on the frontline, you can’t tell war stories, but they’re with you.”
Byrne says an incredible amount has been learned in the past 18 months of living with the virus: an effective vaccine, but also better treatments for hospitalised patients.
“Where we’re at now in the phase of this pandemic is more it being an endemic disease … So Covid’s not going anywhere, it’s part of the community.
“Covid is going to be one of these other respiratory diseases that when you come into St Vincent’s … [it’s] part of the spectrum of respiratory infectious diseases that we treat.”
Byrne says as acute Covid becomes less common, with high vaccination rates, what will now be key is managing follow-ups for people with ongoing Covid symptoms.
“This has been termed ‘long Covid’… the persistence of symptoms despite partial recovery extending on three months. We’re talking, for people in hospital, 50%; for people not admitted to hospital, 30%,” he says.
“I saw a patient just yesterday … He was double vaccinated and unfortunately still got Covid some months later, ended up in intensive care, survived that, and three months later he’s debilitated by fatigue and not back at work.
“These people need ongoing care, rehabilitation and support. That’s a role we’ll be playing here in the hospital.”
