The coronavirus is a microorganism that needs a living being to reproduce itself. Coronavirus or COVID-19, is a type of virus that is highly contagious and that causes important pathologies in the respiratory system. This virus is spread from person to person through droplets of saliva that we expel when we talk, sneeze or cough.
SYMPTOMS
The symptoms that can emerge after the contagion of COVID-19 take place between the second and fourteenth day after the contagion has occurred.
Approximately 80 percent of people affected by the virus only present mild or moderate symptoms. Another small group of people present severe symptoms and others do not present any symptoms whatsoever.
These symptoms are:
- Fever (A temperature higher than 38 degrees)
- Cough (Usually dry and without any sputum)
- Pain (Headaches, throat pain, sometimes leg pain or consistent pain throughout the body)
- Extreme tiredness
- Diarrhoea
- Loss of smell and appetite
SEVERE SIGNS OR SYMPTOMS
- Tightness in the chest and experiencing pain when taking any deep breaths (pleuritic pain)
- Dyspnoea or loss of breath
- Red blotches throughout the skin that could indicate sepsis or an extended infection
- Bruised lips
- Pale skin
- Cold sweat or loss of consciousness
The dyspnoea or loss of breath usually occurs on the seventh day after contagion and patients can suffer from respiratory insufficiency on the eighth day. It is important to keep an eye out on these days in case patients still have a fever or cough.
The dyspnoea or loss of breath can indicate that the infection has moved to the lung and that it is causing pneumonia.
DIAGNOSIS
The presence of the virus can be determined through a sample taken by a swab in the nose and pharynx or through a blood test. An X-ray would be used to diagnose this virus in cases when patients present severe symptoms such as pneumonia.
PREVENTIVE MEASURES
The virus spreads from person to person and through small particles of saliva that we expel when we talk, cough or sneeze. Various studies have verified that these particles have various sizes with big particles falling to the ground and small particles being suspended for a small period of time in the air and then dispersed throughout it.
1. SOCIAL DISTANCING
Always maintain a minimum of two metres or six feet of distance from person to person.
2. COUGHING OR SNEEZING
Always cough or sneeze in a tissue and then get rid of it.
If we don’t have a tissue to hand, then we will cough or sneeze where the bend of our elbow is located, never in our hand as we can use it to touch our nose, mouth or eyes without meaning to and these are usually the most common ways through which the virus enters our system.
3. FREQUENT HAND WASHING
Frequent hand washing and also forearm washing, is to be completed with water and soap for a period of 20 seconds. This is one of the most important measures that we need to take into account. If we are unable to use water and soap then we will use a water-alcohol extract that will need to contain at least seventy per cent of alcohol.
4. CLEANING OF SURFACES
The cleaning of door handles, railings, tables or places where we usually congregate, will be undertaken with common detergents or bleach solutions.
If there are any patients in the house that suffer from coronavirus, then they will maintain the same hygiene measures previously mentioned and should be isolated in a room if able. Them and everybody that came into contact with them will be isolated for a period of fourteen days.
5. FACE MASKS
The use of facemasks has to always be coupled by frequent hand washing with water and soap or with water-alcohol extract gels. The external part of facemasks should not be touched and these should be removed cautiously from the back so as to not touch the front, as it could have come into contact with the virus.
PRECAUTIONS
We should all take the preventive measures mentioned within this article and recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) however, the people mentioned below should take special precautions.
- People older than 65 years old with or without any previous pathologies
- Pregnant women
- People of any age that suffer from previous pathologies such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, chronic lung diseases, (asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis), cancer patients, people that are severely overweight, immunosuppressed patients and patients that have received a transplant
- Patients that have autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or patients that are treated with immunosuppressive drugs or steroids. In this cases, we will need to look out for any other symptoms that are not a fever as they might not exhibit other symptoms due to the treatments that they are already taking
TREATMENT
There is currently no treatment for the virus and we hope that a vaccine would be available in roughly a year from now.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that we are always hydrated and that any medication taken is always done so under medical supervision.
To conclude, we want to highlight that we should maintain a healthy diet, do as much physical exercise as possible within our limitations and maintain the best state of mind possible during quarantine.
We need to care of older and vulnerable people and think about one another. This is the way that we will defeat this virus.
Dr J. Hurtado Martínez
Medical Director of HealthSalus
Medical Director of HealthSalus
