Pulmonary fibrosis as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic

The past crisis year 2020 brought a huge number of human casualties from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 2 million lives to date. The high mortality rate in COVID-19 is associated with the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which leads to hospitalization of patients in intensive care units. In the fight against this deadly disease, in parallel with efforts to control and treat infected patients and study the pathophysiology of this new coronavirus infection, research and clinical follow-up is needed to assess the long-term consequences of ARDS COVID-19. Research should also be undertaken to find reliable clinical and laboratory biomarkers to predict the subset of patients who may develop or progress to pulmonary fibrosis.