Hello! I have been a doctor for 21 years. My name is Georgy Olegovich Sapego. In this article I will tell you about the same coronavirus from an official position and my personal opinion.
The coronavirus that everyone is talking about now is called SARS-CoV-2, and the disease it causes is called COVID-19.
It all started in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019. It is still poorly understood how the virus appeared and how it is transmitted. It is suspected that everything is spinning at the fish market in Wuhan. They sell live fish there. The first sick people worked there or bought goods. Now this market has been flooded with chemicals up to its ears, so we won't know the truth.
I personally I do not believe in any conspiracy theories of the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It seems to me that the Chinese, with their love for exotic food, again got drunk on some kind of living creature and became infected.
Remember the story about evil Klebsiella strainfrom which Chinese got liver abscesses? This Klebsiella was also found in turtles, or in some other exotic food.
In short, people got sick and spread the infection around the world.
It is believed that the virus is transmitted from person to person through large drops of snot, sputum and saliva, which fly out when you cough, sneeze and talk. The droplets are large, they do not fly farther than 2 meters and do not hang in the air.
Also, as with a common cold, they become infected not so much with drops as with dirty hands. If you touch such a dried snot on a doorknob and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth, you can become infected. The virus lives on different surfaces from several hours to several days. Many became infected by touching the patients themselves.
In fact, coronaviruses are the second cause of the common cold, which many get sick 5 times a year. It is very easy to pick her up. It's just that this particular strain turned out to be evil.
All these mechanisms of transmission of the virus are not fully understood, but it is easier to treat it as a virus that causes the common cold.
A person who has contracted the coronavirus can spray it into the environment even before they feel sick.
You can get sick 14 days after contact with an infected person. Before 2 days no one got sick, and later 11 days they also rarely got sick. They usually get sick 5 days after exposure.
Severity of infection
In about 80% of cases, the infection is mild.
About 15% will have severe pneumonia with hospital, shortness of breath, oxygen and all.
Approximately 2.3% of those affected die.
Children easily carry the infection. Pregnant women do not usually transmit the virus to their baby.
But the virus is recouping the elderly. Among people over 70, between 8 and 15% die.
Sometimes people find the virus in tests, but nothing bothers them at all. It is an asymptomatic infection.
Symptoms
Descending order:
- heat;
- cough;
- decreased appetite;
- muscle pain;
- dyspnea.
The trick of the virus is that it causes very severe pneumonia. The lungs are literally saturated with inflammatory fluid and it becomes difficult to breathe. Oxygen and even mechanical ventilation do not always help. Sometimes it is necessary to connect patients to devices that saturate the blood with oxygen without the participation of the lungs. It's terribly difficult. A specific medicine for SARS-CoV-2 has not yet been invented.
How not to get infected
It is necessary to stay at home more and not go to places where people are crowded.
Stay away from coughing and snotty people.
Do not touch your face with dirty hands.
Hands should be washed with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Look online for videos on how to wash your hands.
If you have nowhere to wash your hands, you can use a sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.
If you can see dirt on your hands, then this dirt must first be washed with soap, and only then smeared with a sanitizer, otherwise it will not work.
If you don't cough, then there is no point in walking down the street wearing a mask.
If you are sick, cough into a rag or sleeve, but do not cough on others.
Who is considered potentially infected with COVID-19
Potentially infected with coronavirus will be considered those who have a fever and / or cough if they were in close contact with patients with COVID-19 in the previous 14 days.
Close contact means being closer than 2 meters from the patient without a mask and glasses or touching with bare hands what the patient's snot and drool could be on.
Tourists returning from Italy (and the rest of Europe), Japan, Iran, South Korea, China are also included there.
Such people need to stay at home for at least 14 days, and start communicating with medical workers by phone. If shortness of breath appears, then you need to call an ambulance. If only a cold, then you need to call the clinic.
If such a person sneezes and coughs at home, then it is better for him to have a separate room at home, and he needs to wear a mask. In the house, it will be necessary to regularly treat those surfaces with which people are often in contact with antiseptics: sinks, doorknobs, light switches, and so on.
The coronavirus has on its surface a complex set of "master keys" to attack our cells. This is his danger, but this is also his weakness. This "crown" of his is very sensitive to chemicals.
So stock up on chemicals.
For surface treatment use 70% alcohol or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite solution. Hypochlorite is the active ingredient in all household cleaning products like Domestos. Read labels. There this hypochlorite is from 3 to 6%. Usually, about 4 teaspoons of the product are diluted per liter of water. This solution is stored for one day.
What else can I say on my own behalf
For 20 years already I have been teaching people to wash their hands before touching their faces to prevent colds. Everyone just giggled. The people thought that it was enough to open the window and the viruses would fly away. Now all learn to wash your hands correctly, and cough in the sleeve, and dilute bleach.
What will be the questions?
