Open AccessCOVID-19 pandemic and its implications on sexual life: Recommendations from the Italian Society of Andrology
Author(s) -
Carlo Maretti,
Salvatore Privitera,
Davide Arcaniolo,
Lorenzo Cirigliano,
Adele Fabrizi,
Michele Rizzo,
C. Ceruti,
Ilaria Ortensi,
Stefano Lauretti,
Tommaso Cai,
Marco Bitelli,
Fabrizio Palumbo,
Alessandro Palmieri
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
archivio italiano di urologia andrologia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.429
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 2282-4197
pISSN - 1124-3562
DOI - 10.4081/aiua.2020.2.73
Subject(s) - pandemic , myalgia , medicine , outbreak , chills , pneumonia , covid-19 , population , reproductive health , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , virology , immunology , environmental health
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the coronavirus that causes an infectious disease, called COVID-19, first detected in patients with pneumonia in Wuhan (People's Republic of China) on December 2019. Italy was the first European country to state the outbreak of the infection and its Council of Ministers declared the state of health emergency on 31.01.2020, then the World Health Organization ruled a global pandemic on 11.03.2020. The nasopharyngeal swab is based on the detection of virus RNA and is the only reliable one for declaring COVID-19 infection. The most common symptoms observed in COVID-19 patients before hospitalization may be fever, chills, cough, dyspnea, asthenia, myalgia and/or arthralgia. This symptomatology can be often complicated in a dramatically increasing manner such as to require hospitalization starting from the third-fourth week. COVID-19 outbreak has dramatically affected the quality of life by changing inter-personal relationships, community life and obviously sexual health. The purpose of this work, based on available evidence, is to provide recommendations to help the population to face their sexual life in this critical period.