What to look for:
According to the WHO, following are the current guidelines on identifying if someone may have a corona-virus infection.
‘If the patient satisfies the epidemiological AND clinical criteria (listed below), they are classified as a suspected case:
Epidemiological criteria
- Travel to Wuhan City (Hubei Province, China) in the 14 days before the onset of illness, OR
- Travel to an area with evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, or a declared outbreak, within 14 days before onset of illness, OR
- Close contact in 14 days before illness onset with a confirmed case of 2019-nCoV.
Clinical criteria
- Fever or history of fever (>38 °C) and acute respiratory infection (sudden onset of respiratory infection at least one of: shortness of breath, cough or sore throat), OR
- Severe acute respiratory infection requiring admission to hospital with clinical or radiological evidence of pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome (i.e. even if no evidence of fever).’
Prevention is the best option
Current recommendations to help prevent the spread of the virus are common to all viruses such as influenza, and especially apply to people travelling or working in healthcare. Recommendations include:
- Regularly wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
- Cover your nose and mouth when sneezing or coughing with a tissue or flexed elbow. Avoid coughing into your hands. Throw the tissue into a closed bin
- Avoid close contact with individuals who display cold and flu-like symptoms
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. (A face mask may help you to remember to not touch your face)
- Avoid travel if you have a fever or a cough
- Avoid travel if you are immune-compromised or have a chronic illness, or if you are regularly in close contact with individuals with such conditions
- If you have a fever, cough or difficulty breathing, seek medical care early, and share your travel history with your health care provider; let your doctor know before you present to their clinic that you have respiratory symptoms so that you are not kept waiting with other patients
- If you feel unwell during your travels, notify your travel crew
- Eat only well-cooked food while travelling
- Because of the way viruses mutate, new ones will always develop and some of these will be relatively mild, and others will be more virulent. Apart from supportive care and avoiding infected persons, there is very little that can be done medically to treat a virus, so the best defence against any virus or infection is to make sure that your own immune system is strong enough to deal with it quickly and effectively.
Your immune system is a complex system so if you would like to boost yours or to have it assessed, book in to see one of our Naturopaths and give yourself the best protection possible. We have a range of ‘Prescription Only’ therapeutic products and mixes available to suit all ages, so before you head off to waste money on unproven retails products, give us a call and get the right advice and products to begin with.