Learn to recognise signs and act early on Covid-19
Please read this carefully, it may save your life.
We may well be in the eye of the storm. Covid-19 rates are now higher than ever; the hospital is full of patients with Covid, and the NHS is stretched. We absolutely must reduce social interaction to the absolute minimum to reduce spread. We know this, or we should do. What I think is not as known as it much as it should be, is what to look out for if someone is infected with Covid, and what to do.
Going back to March, when the first wave hit us, the general view seemed to be that those infected should take some paracetamol, take to bed and let it pass. This is the usual advice for normal viruses. Unfortunately, as we now know, this is not a normal virus. It is true that most people who contract this virus have a mild illness (or have no symptoms), but for those who are older and those with medical problems it can be very serious. There are also a smaller proportion of younger people who become seriously unwell.
The course of the illness for those with symptoms typically can go two ways, the first group typically have a cough, temperature and ‘flu-like’ illness for a few days, the symptoms usually improve by day 7. The second group instead if improving by the end of the first week, stay the same or worsen. The symptoms that are of concern include: a persistent fever; worsening cough; shortness of breath; difficulty doing normal activities; worsening muscle pain; and sometimes hallucinations.
As well as people with those concerning symptoms, people who should be seeking out medical help are those who with higher risk factors, these include: cardiac disease; respiratory disease; those over 65. If you contract Covid-19 and you are in those groups, you should be letting your GP Surgery know as you may need an assessment and they may not know you have the illness.
A major problem for this group is a low oxygen level in the blood- known as ‘hypoxia’. This can occur when the virus goes beyond the ‘upper respiratory tract’ (nose, throat, etc) and into the lungs. If this happens it tends to be after the first few days, and particularly around day 7. This is more likely if someone is more at risk.
This is where the importance of oxygen saturation measurement comes in. This can be measured reliably by pulse oximeters; these are simple devices that slip over the end of your finger and record a percentage of oxygen in the blood. They are best used by patients more at risk or with worsening symptoms and you do need some guidance to interpret the numbers.
The NHS can support this by advising what to look out for, and it is best to work with GPs and health services to decide who would need one of these, the NHS has a limited numbers of these to lend out. However, for people who may need them in the future they are available to buy and often friends and family may have one handy. They can provide a way of home monitoring to pick up early on hypoxia and get prompt treatment.
The good news is that after nearly a year of dealing with this horrible virus we now have good processes of picking up these problems, much better treatments and a better understanding of how to manage poorly patients in hospital.
The important point to remember is that if you or a family member have concerning symptoms, as described above, don’t ride it out and hope it will go away. Get some help.
Oxford Mail, 20th January 2021