CMAAO IMA HCFI CORONA MYTH BUSTER 9

CMAAO IMA HCFI CORONA MYTH BUSTER 9

Dr K K Aggarwal

President CMAAO, HCFI and Past national President CMAAO

Results of Janta Karphu will be seen on the same day

No, the results will be seen on 5^th day. Results on 22 nd will be due to patients encountered with COVID virus 5-56 days back.  The incubation period is 2-14 days with an average 5.9 days

It is safe to spend time with my grandchildren right now

COVID-19 affects older people more severely than younger people — and children are notorious for spreading germs. To be safe, grandparents really shouldn’t be doing childcare.

Baby also demands things from outside. Older adults are the ones who really need to isolate themselves.

Silent spreaders do not exist

Known  cases are known but the virus can take up to two weeks to become symptomatic. This means there are people walking around who are not yet experiencing symptoms but are still infecting others. These are the silent spreaders.

Because the virus can be transmitted before someone shows symptoms, simply avoiding people who look sick isn’t going to help much. To slow the rate of infection, it’s imperative that we follow public health strategies – like social distancing – to reduce contact between healthy people and silent spreaders. Avoid going to public places or interacting with anyone outside your household unless absolutely necessary.

Its their dharma, doctors should continue their routine practice

No. Routine non emergent work should be delayed, rescheduled, canceled, or performed remotely to protect providers and patients and to make way for a predicted surge of COVID-19 patients.

Blood Type A Linked to Higher Risk?

NO. A new study of more than 2000 patients found that those with blood type A are more susceptible to COVID-19. The preliminary study, conducted by researchers at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, compared the blood type of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 with that of healthy people from the same region. The authors suggest that ABO blood typing could be useful in disease and risk management.;

The study, was published on a preprint server, medRxiv , which is not a peer-reviewed Journal. The front page of the website itself mentioned that the information is not reliable.

Disinfection of house daily is not the answer

While stuck at home, the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says you should be disinfecting and cleaning daily.

The CDC recommends on its website disinfecting high-touch surfaces like tables, hard-backed chairs, doorknobs, light switches, remotes, handles, desks, toilets and sinks every day.

When disinfecting surfaces, the CDC recommends wearing gloves and discarding gloves after each cleaning. If a surface is dirty, it should be cleaned with soap and water before being disinfected. 

You can use “diluted household bleach solutions” or alcohol solutions with at least 70% alcohol.

For soft surfaces like carpet, rugs and drapes should be used with appropriate cleaners and laundered as appropriate. 

Sick people can stay with me

If someone in your household gets sick, the CDC recommends having a designated room for them and if possible, a separate bathroom not shared with healthy household members. The sick person should eat meals in the designated room, if possible and have a dedicated, lined trash can. Use gloves when serving food items and removing trash.

Cleaning and disinfecting are same

No. Cleaning means removing germs and dirt from surfaces. While it may lower the risk of spreading germs by removing them, it does not kill germs. Disinfecting is the process of using chemicals to kill germs on a surface. It doesn’t necessarily clean a dirty surface, but disinfecting a surface after cleaning it will lower the risk of spreading infection.

Enforcement of isolation is not the solution’

The tragedy of Italy stands as a warning to its European neighbors and the United States, where the virus is coming with equal velocity. If Italy’s experience shows anything, it is that measures to isolate affected areas and limit the movement of the broader population need to be taken early, put in place with absolute clarity, then strictly enforced.

Italy’s piecemeal attempts to cut it off — isolating towns first, then regions, then shutting down the country in an intentionally porous lockdown — always lagged behind the virus’s lethal trajectory.

Trop I and Pro BNP is the best COVIOD 19 marker

Two cardiac biomarkers are often elevated in patients with coronavirus infection (COVID-19), for reasons that are still poorly understood, but tests for them shouldn't be ordered except for standard clinical reasons.

That means assays for troponins and natriuretic peptides should be obtained only for such patients who have clinical signs of acute myocardial infarction (MI) or heart failure, respectively. Those are top-line messages from a short review posted by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) aimed in part at discouraging unnecessary application of widely-used heart-disease biomarker assays in the unfamiliar times of a global public health emergency.

In patients with COVID-19, therefore, "clinicians are advised to only measure troponin or natriuretic peptides if the diagnosis of acute MI or heart failure are being considered on clinical grounds," the article states.

An abnormal troponin or natriuretic peptide result should not be considered evidence for an acute MI or heart failure without corroborating evidence.

There is shortage of doctors

No, the fear is the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Home made masks should never be used

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its guidance on mask use a couple times already to restrict masks for higher-risk situations.

Thursday they released another statement:

“In settings where face masks are not available, health care providers might use homemade masks (e.g., bandana, scarf) for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort. However, homemade masks are not considered personal protective equipment.”