Rehabilitation, a necessity in hospitalized and discharged people infected with COVID-19: a narrative review

Abstract

Novel coronavirus spread all around the world furiously and COVID-19 epidemic has become a global crisis. Limitation in social interactions and rules to avoid close in person contacts was mandatory as the first line facing the virus in many countries. For infected people, medical services are managing clients using existing drugs; In many countries, trials are being conducted to detect vaccines and effective antiviral medications to control the disease. In addition to the adverse effects of the acute disease itself, prolong hospitalization was associated with an array of consequences that may engage survivors with serious long-term cardiorespiratory, physical and mental disabilities. Rehabilitation needs to be considered as a part of the in-patient and out-patient care for people infected by COVID-19 and should begin as soon as possible since along with the pharmacological interventions, it may minimize the hospitalization period, decrease the cardiopulmonary, musculoskeletal and mental consequences of infection as well as prolong bed rest side effects. This fact implies long-term planning and commitments to provide extensive rehabilitation services for a large number of individuals who were infected by COVID-19 or were in close contact with the clients. This review summarizes current finding about rehabilitation of people suffering from COVID-19 infection and provides an evidence based platform for discussing rehabilitation strategies.