Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic as a challenge for pathology laboratories and pathologists in Egypt

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 is a novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease. The WHO announced the disease as pandemic in March 2020. The pandemic has caused a global collapse of the health system, and all nations started efforts and actions to confront the corona crisis. Egypt, although it is a middle resource country, started early its measures to control the spread of COVID-19 and on January 24, 2021 announced its vaccine rollout, with priority to health workers. Health workers faced many difficulties and challenges during the pandemic with heavy workload and higher risk of coronavirus infection. Because of repeated exposures to potentially infectious patients and specimens, laboratory personnel, like other health-care physicians, are more susceptible to contract COVID-19. The knowledge of pathological lesions in lung tissues and other different organs may provide a more accurate therapeutic management of symptoms and complications in affected severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 patients. Histopathological laboratories must follow strict biosafety guidelines to ensure that the laboratory personnel are protected. This article aims to highlight the challenges faced in histopathology laboratories during the COVID-19 pandemic and introduce some recommendations for the future laboratory work in Egypt.