We’re all nervous about the COVID virus and for prostate
cancer patients who tend to be more elderly they the concerns are a little
greater if people get a pneumonia. It’s
more serious think of the COVID 19 virus is nothing more than a common cold but
with the potential to progress into a really bad pneumonia and most people. it
starts like a cold and ends like a cold.
however COVID 19 is
different from most other cold viruses
because it spreads to the lungs more
frequently and acts more aggressively.
when it gets there please realize that
not everyone who catches COVID19 is at
equal risk for pneumonia the greatest
risk is in older people smokers people
with immunodeficiency’s people with
heart disease diabetics alcoholics or
people with other serious health
problems like emphysema asthma liver
disease or kidney disease to put this in
perspective.
let's talk a little
bit about the common cold because we actually
know quite a bit about the common cold
and COVID 19 comes from the same viral
family as the common cold the common
cold is an upper respiratory tract
infection a URI that affects the nose
throat sinuses and larynx like other
colds COVID 19 can cause fever cough sore throat body aches etc.
the average adult
gets two or three colds a year symptoms
may include sore throat sneezing runny
nose fevers coughing and recovery
usually takes one to three weeks cold
viruses can be contracted through the
air from people who are coughing or
sneezing. but the greater risk is by
touching and animate objects and
surfaces doorknobs faucets light
switches that have been previously touched
or coughed on by or sneezed on by
someone who's sick the COVID 19 cold virus can survive outside the body on in Anna surfaces for up to a week.
so if you touch an infected surface you now have the virus sticking to your fingertips if those hands touch your eyes your nose or mouth
the virus sticks to those mucous membranes
it penetrates into the cells and starts
the process of infection COVID 19 can't penetrate through your skin it only enters the body via the wet surfaces of your mouth eyes or nose.
let's talk a little
bit about viral pneumonia remember Cova acts just like any other cold unless it drops down into the lungs people who develop pneumonia usually start with a typical cold upper URI symptoms that WE previously described let me distress.
one time that the
corona virus infection is just a plain
old cold unless it gets into the lungs
and produces pneumonia not all types of pneumonia are equally serious many cases don't even require hospitalization. however those who are sick enough to go to the hospital show high fevers serious coughs shortness of breath and sometimes pain when they take a deep breath dying from pneumonia is much less common than it used to be standard Hospital support which includes antibiotics intensive care units trained respiratory care technicians oxygen support and mechanical respirators all make a huge difference.
WE realize of course
that antibiotics can't treat the corona
virus directly however antibiotics do
prevent bacterial pneumonia which is a
known serious complication of viral
pneumonia .so what is the actual
mortality rate for the COVID 19 virus we
can get some sense of COVID 19's danger
by reviewing an inadvertent experiment
performed on a large group of people on
a quarantined cruise ship the diamond
Princess cruise ship out of
approximately 3,700 passengers 700 .
were infected and six
perished were these people representative
of the rest of us average Americans not
exactly as people on cruises tend to be
older. however we now know that older
people are particularly vulnerable to COVID so
this was an experiment performed in a relatively
more vulnerable population compared to
the demographics in an average.
American city as it turns out six people out of the 700 who were infected died all six were over 70 years old. so the estimated COVID 19 mortality rate comes in at around 1% for older people the risk for younger people is far lower .how do you avoid getting COVID 19
basically the same way you avoid any cold
after all COVID 19 is a cold virus let me describe my personal experience dodging colds in my daily workplace I'm a 65 year old physician who works in an office seeing patients for over 30 years normally.
WE greet and shake hands with at least 10 to 20 people a day I love my work and I love being around people but my job is obviously very high-risk for picking up viruses and getting sick yet even with all this daily human contact .WE almost never catch a cold at most maybe I come down with the cold every three to four years maybe so what's my secret WE live in constant awareness that my hands and my entire surrounding environment are covered with infectious viruses.
WE never touch my
eyes mouth or nose without first washing
my hands keeping my hands off my face
does the trick many of you are
diligently sterilizing your surrounding
environment by wiping down all your
counters. Keyboards, phone, doorknobs, and that may help a little bit. however it's not going to help if you keep touching your eyes nose or mouth eventually one of those sneaky viruses will get you I'm also not much of a believer in face mass unless it's a way just to remind you to keep your hands off from touching your face relatively few people catch colds by being coughed on more than 95 percent of the calls we get come from our own hands sure if someone with a cold sneezes or coughs near me.
I take precautions WE
temporarily cease inhaling and move away
so that I don't breathe the standing air
that closely surrounds them as a service
to others. when WE have a cold I confess
to anyone I'm greeting that. I am
infected and I abstained from shaking
hands when my patients have coal's.
they kindly warned me not to
shake hands with him as well this is a
common courtesy to extend when coping
with symptoms of a cold or flu now of
course we're entering into a brand new
era with this new type of cold that can
progress into a pneumonia and some
people handshakes are a thing of the
past obviously anyone with active cold
symptoms should be at home isolated
until the symptoms go away like smoking
cigarettes indoors moving around in
public with a cough or a runny nose is
unacceptable is there a treatment for
coronavirus.
presently there is no
direct treatment for the corona virus.
however it is well known that zinc
inhibits the propagation and spread of
the cold viruses from their starting
place in our throat area to other areas
of the body like the lungs to minimize
that viral spread throughout the body.
anyone who feels new
onset of cold symptoms should keep their
mucous membranes their mouth and throat
constantly bathed in zinc until the cold symptoms abate Col deze
&. zai camera a couple of the
products that are available
over-the-counter at your local pharmacy
just recently. I read some fascinating
very preliminary research about an
antibiotic called hydroxychloroquine
that enables zinc to enter into
infective cells more efficiently initial
studies seem to show faster resolution
of COVID symptoms. when hydroxychloroquine and zinc are used together i'm talking about patients with pneumonia problems. if anybody you know develops a viral pneumonia you might want to mention to them or their families about the possibility of adding hydroxychloroquine to the zinc it's an inexpensive well tolerated antibiotic.
it's easily obtained I have one other tip that I'd like to share over and over. I see people with colds and stuffy nose sniffing to prevent any of the secretions running down their face. I kind of want to grab them and tell them to stop doing this. when they sniff third nasal secretions inward they're sucking the virus down into their lungs increasing the risk of getting pneumonia use a tissue or a handkerchief for those runny noses. but don't suck the infected secretions down into the lungs. so I conclude
colds are very contagious and as a
result they spread far and wide very
quickly cold epidemics usually only come
to an end after most the general population
has been infected and a broad spread
herd immunity develops do.
I believe that people are going to be able to stop touching their faces under this new threat of COVID 19 I suspect. It’s going to be hard for
many people to change their ways and consistently avoid touching their faces however. I know through my own experience that I've learned over many years that if the discipline of the hands can be mastered. it really works personally I have no nervousness being around people or crowds. because I know that I control my destiny I'm the only one who can infect me.
I hope this information will give you a greater sense that you can control your destiny it is very difficult to be disciplined I even wash my hands before. WE go to sleep because I don't know what they're gonna do after WE go to bed at night but WE truly believe if you're careful in this regard that you can prevent yourself from catching this.
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