A group of experts has found that at least 15 patients who developed serious symptoms of pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus have received treatment using a heart-lung machine.
The World Health Organization says about 80 percent of people with the virus have mild symptoms, while about 6 percent suffer serious symptoms as inflammation that spreads across the whole of the lungs.
Such patients receive treatment using a heart-lung machine in a process called extracorporeal membranous oxygenation, or ECMO, which sends oxygen directly into the blood to temporarily take over the lung function.
A nationwide survey of about 300 medical institutions conducted by the expert group, comprising members of the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine, the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine and others, found at least 15 patients have received the treatment and were alive as of Tuesday.
The expert group says that as there is currently no drug proven to be effective against the virus, doctors have to deal with symptoms until the virus is eliminated by the patients' immune system.
The group reports that four of the 15 patients have finished the treatment and are recovering.
The experts say they will survey the use of ECMO machines in Japan. They are calling for patients to be transferred to hospitals that have doctors capable of administering the treatment.
One doctor in the group, Shinhiro Takeda, pointed out that carrying out the treatment using ECMO is very difficult and said they will step up their efforts to save the lives of as many patients as possible.