One nurse was bruised after using a face mask and said she could not go to the toilet or drink for six hours. Another collapsed asleep on a laptop at the end of a relentless 10-hour shift.

Along with doctors and other medical staff, nurses have been on the frontline of Italy's fight against coronavirus - sharing stories of exhaustion and heroism in the face of a disease that has killed more than 800 people in the country and infected over 12,400.

Young nurse Alessia Bonari, who shared a photo showing the marks on her face after wearing a protective mask, said she was afraid to go to work every day.

In an Instagram post, she wrote: "I am afraid because the mask might not stick properly to the face, or I might have accidentally touched myself with dirty gloves, or maybe the lenses don't cover my eyes fully and something slipped by.

"I am physically tired because the protective devices hurt, the lab coat makes me sweat and once I'm dressed I can no longer go to the bathroom or drink for six hours.


"I am psychologically tired, like all my colleagues who have been in the same situation for weeks, but this won't stop us doing our job."

In the past days, a photo of another nurse, Elena Pagliarini, has become a symbol of the medical profession's fight against coronavirus.

Ms Pagliarini works at a hospital in Cremona. The city is in northern Lombardy, the country's hardest-hit region.

Image: 'Moment of truce': A nurse collapses from exhaustion. Pic: Nurse Times

Fellow nurse Francesca Mangiatordi, who took the photo, told Nurse Times: "We had been working relentlessly for 10 hours.

"I looked at her and I wanted to hug her, but I preferred to immortalise that moment."

Ms Bonari, from Grosseto in Tuscany, urged Italians to respect a lockdown imposed on the country to curb the spread of the disease. Otherwise, she warned all the medical staff's efforts would be in vain.

She added: "We young people are not immune to coronavirus, we too can get sick - worse yet, we can make somebody else sick.

"I can't afford the luxury of going back to a house under quarantine. I have to go to work and do my part. You do yours, please."

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The appeal from Ms Bonari, who is listed on Facebook as working at a Milan hospital, came after doctors have offered dramatic accounts of the challenges faced by frontline staff.

Some have likened coronavirus to war, or to a tsunami.

As Italy continues to grapple with the worst outbreak outside China, doctors and nurses have a long way to go.

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