ARBOLEDA, LIASTINE JAN B.

1ST INTERNSHIP

COVID-19 and the clinical hematology laboratory

Frater, J. L., Zini, G., D’Onofrio, G., & Rogers, H. J. (2020). COVID ‐19 and the clinical
hematology laboratory. International Journal of Laboratory Hematology, 42(S1), 11–18.
https://doi.org/10.1111/ijlh.13229

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic began in the Chinese city of Wuhan, which lies at the center
of the Hubei Province, in December of 2019. Although efforts were made to keep the disease
from spreading further, it eventually spread to several other countries. Zuo et al. discovered and
described the virus, initially known as 2019-nCoV before being termed SARS-CoV2 and
eventually COVID-19. This virus, like the viruses that caused the severe acute respiratory
syndrome, often recognized as SARS, pandemic in 2002 to 2003 as well as the Middle East
respiratory syndrome, also called MERS an outbreak in 2012-2013, is a coronavirus, which
means that it is related to coronaviruses. Coronaviruses contain a positive-sense mono Rna strand
and a helix capsid with an envelope made up of a lipid bilayer, making them difficult to
distinguish from other viruses. A sequence examination of the genomes of COVID-19 revealed
that it shares a high degree of homology with SARS-like coronaviruses that generally infect bats.
As a result, the pandemic is considered to have originated from a zoonotic transmission.

The investigation of the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 is complicated by at least

two key reasons. The first one is the absence of a diagnostic technique that is consistently
applied. Different countries have taken vastly diverse approaches to screen programs to make
matters more complicated. Primary forms of this heterogeneity include South Korea. This
comparatively small country now has assessed more than 65 000 citizens, as opposed to the
United States, which would have been late in implementing RT-PCR and has evaluated a very
much smaller number of persons at the beginning. Even during a pandemic, numerous local
events, particularly international conferences that entail large groups of people and traveling,
have indeed been postponed or rescheduled, resulting in a halt to ongoing education. To preserve
continuous education, institutions, faculty, and staff of the scheduled events are unexpectedly
compelled to hold virtual meetings, globally available live streaming events, or recorded virtual
meetings to be accessible from anywhere. Moving from traditional education to virtual learning
takes time and effort since it requires pre-planning, preparation, and execution of virtual events
to minimize the possibility of the stigma associated with inadequate continuous learning.

In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a substantial challenge to the worldwide
laboratories’ hematology research community. Competence and comradeship, which distinguish
hematology laboratory technicians, are now more critical than ever for the achievement of the
mission to successfully address this danger of infection. A central theme of this review was the
significance of research lab data in the monitoring of COVID-19, the significance of safe
laboratory procedures to minimize the risk to laboratory staff, and the endeavors performed by
professional communities to keep going their critical educational mission in such a complex and
challenging environment.