New Delhi | 21st July 2020: Amidst the rising number of Covid-19 cases in India, there is a lot of fear and apprehension among people about the infection. The need of the hour is to stay positive. Even while checking a person for symptoms, it is important to look for the positive aspects such as sense of taste and smell, rather than only temperature. Kids should also be given the right information and not made to panic about the disease.
COVID-19 stays in the body for only nine days. By the time, one gets diagnosed with COVID; it’s the seventh day and one needs to struggle for some days to remove it from the body. The recovery rate of people with the infection in India is high and even the direct fatality rate is low. The key is to remember that even in patients with co-morbidities, precaution and prevention must be the norm.
Speaking about this, Padma Shri Awardee, Dr K K Aggarwal, President, HCFI and CMAAO, said, “There are two phases of COVID-19 and it manifests in the temporary form (for the first 9 days) and persistent form (which takes about 3-4 weeks). The first form is called the viral phase in which the infection can lead to loss of sense of smell and taste, pain in the ear, diarrhea, pneumonia, cough, fever, etc. After 9 days, the virus enters the non-replicative state and the damage can take about 3-4 months to recover. In the second phase, it can cause diarrhea, gastritis, esophagitis, pharyngitis, and pneumonia or even recurrent loss of smell and taste which usually disappears in four weeks.”
Adding further, Dr Aggarwal, said, “It is very important to maintain respiratory hygiene. Do not cough on your hands or handkerchief. Either use a tissue paper or cough on your sleeve. Whoever has fever, cough and cold should maintain a distance of 1 metre or 3 feet from others. Hand hygiene is also a must. Moreover, if you are rubbing your eyes continuously, you may be suffering from computer vision syndrome, so use eye drops. If you are picking your nose again and again, you have an allergy and you must get yourself treated for it. Last but not the least, isolation does not mean jail but rather social distance of 3 feet, wearing a mask.”
Some tips from HCFI
- It is important to remember that if there is no fever or flu then it is not corona. If there is no breathlessness, then there is no oxygen requirement.
- It is better to do a Corona namaste or elbow touch rather than shaking hands.
- Maintain social distance 1 meter from a person with cough and cold; wash hands (Remember the mnemonic SUMAN K – seedha ulta mutthi anghuta nakhun kalai) with soap and water or 70% alcohol sanitizer, disinfect surfaces, use surgical masks, if infected (symptoms).
- If you have fever with dry cough with or without breathlessness self- isolate (quarantine yourself at home), wear surgical mask, do frequent hand wash and call your doctor.
- It doesn’t get transmitted between children to children and, if any child has COVID, after 3-4 days the symptoms disappear.
- There is a need to have proper ventilation in rooms and washrooms in our offices. An air purifier with 10 exchanges per hour and a micro-filter can help in preventing COVID-19 transmission.
- One should undertake simple exercises for strengthening lungs that include blowing balloons, blowing bubbles in water via a straw, and many more. One should maintain a high protein diet by eating all types of vegetables.
