Palliation in coronavirus Disease-19: Need of the hour

Abstract

The current coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered intense suffering by causing physical illness, social distancing, stress, anxiety, financial concerns, social variability, and death. The imbalance between the increasing number of cases and the availability of infrastructure, trained personnel, oxygen, and drugs, are further adding to the crisis. The response to the pandemic requires mitigation of suffering in forms. One of the needs of the hour is providing effective and safe palliative care and end-of-life care to mitigate suffering. A vast majority of COVID patients are dying with an unmet need of palliation therapy. Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients through the relief of suffering, so this is one of the fundamentals of COVID-19 treatment beyond the use of ventilators. The purpose of this article is to review the recent guidelines of palliative care in COVID-19 patients, to help healthcare workers know how to apply the principles of palliative care in the pandemic scenario, to foster good end-of-life care. India is currently fighting to ebb the second wave of the pandemic, and this article will provide inputs for the government to make triage decisions and policies in view of the paucity of resources. Various aspects of palliation in COVID-19, including recent guidelines, planning, triage, management, communication skills, and necessary decision-making for the health care worker and end-of-life care in the Indian scenario are highlighted in this review.