TY - JOUR AU - Kamani, Lubna PY - 2020/05/19 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - What gastroenterologists should know during COVID-19 Pandemic! Gastroenterologists and COVID-19 pandemic JF - Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences JA - Pak J Med Sci VL - 36 IS - COVID19-S4 SE - Brief Communication DO - 10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2651 UR - https://pjms.org.pk/index.php/pjms/article/view/2651 SP - AB - The WHO has declared a Pandemic due to Novel Corona virus-19 (COVID-19). Patients usually have respiratory symptoms but gastrointestinal and hepatic dysfunction are not uncommon presentations and can lead to a delay in diagnosis and management. Virus shedding can continue even after the nasopharyngeal swab gets negative and could lead to faecal-oral transmission. The effects of COVID-19 on patients with decompensated liver disease is still not clear. Managing immunosuppressive drugs in liver transplant and inflammatory bowel disease is a major challenge without clear guidelines. Only emergency endoscopy is to be done with personal protection equipment. Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine has shown some beneficial effects and is being used off-label. Without effective treatment, it is imperative to take precautionary measures.doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2651How to cite this:Kamani L. What gastroenterologists should know during COVID-19 Pandemic! Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(COVID19-S4):COVID19-S124-S125.  doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2651This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ER -