On Wednesday 14 June, at the Casa dell'Aviatore in Rome, the scientific conference "From COVID to Long COVID: clinic and prevention in the Aeronautical sector" was held, organized by the Institute of Aerospace Medicine of the Air Force (IMA) of Rome , intended for military and civilian doctors, nurses and psychologists.
The event, chaired by Brigadier General Fabio Morgagni, director of IMA, which had the patronage of ENAC and CESMA to underline the multidisciplinary nature of the topic, addressed the clinical problems caused by Covid-19 acutely and above all in the long-term, with a particular focus on prognostic markers and the impact on the assessment of fitness to fly, and the aim of starting to identify useful elements for the diagnosis and, above all, for the clinical and prognostic classification of a pathology still not defined in its possibilities of evolution.
During the pandemic emergency, the Air Force and the Armed Forces themselves were an integral part of the alert system, actively contributing to dealing with the critical events caused by the spread of the virus. The integration of the military component with the other elements of the country's health system was underlined by the presence of authoritative institutional speakers from the Ministry of Health, the IRCSS INMI Spallanzani, the Italian Red Cross, the University "La Sapienza" and by the Order of Doctors of Palermo.
Indeed, the conference aimed to bring together experts from various fields, including medicine, public health, aviation safety, psychology, to discuss the challenges faced during the pandemic. Clinical aspects of long-term COVID-19 infection in aviation personnel, prevention strategies for air travel, aircraft disinfection protocols and other related topics were discussed at the event.
Of particular interest was the round table in which young doctors and nurses in uniform presented various clinical experiences in the field of Aeronautical Medicine, based on the study of real cases highlighted on flight and non-flight personnel, during periodic visits or post-infection observation .
The importance of the event was also underlined by the interventions of important military authorities, primarily the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General of the Air Force Luca Goretti, who in his opening speech highlighted how the contribution of the Health Military and in particular of the aeronautical one, it proved to be indispensable during the pandemic especially in the transport sector in high biocontainment, and how the capacity developed today must be an impetus to improve in order to be ready to face any new epidemics.
The inspector general of Military Health, division general Vito Ferrara, thanking the AM for the contribution provided to military health during the pandemic, highlighted the crucial role played by the Armed Forces, finally the chief inspector general Giuseppe Ciniglio Appiani, head of the Corps and the Aeronautical Health Service, instead exalted the scientific value of the conference in particular regarding the after-effects of Covid-19 and their relationship with flight activity.
