5 Important Things Learned Since COVID-19 Outbreak
With the pandemic, COVID-19, still present around the world, researchers are learning more about the virus day-by-day. A professor from University of Toronto sent out a letter to his family outlining 5 important things that have been found about COVID-19.
He states that individuals who get infected by COVID-19 after June 2020 are more likely to survive in comparison to individuals who had been infected in February 2020. The reason to that being? Doctors and Scientists have a better understanding of the virus and are able to treat patients better.
5 Important Things learned since Feb 2020:
- Since the pandemic outbreak, it was initially understood that COVID-19 was causing deaths due to pneumonia and ventilators were being used in thought of it being the most effective treatment. Doctors and Researchers are now understanding that the virus is causing blood clots in the blood vessels of the lungs and other parts of the body due to reduced oxygenation, and instead of only using ventilators for treatment, drugs like Aspirin and Heparin are being used to treat patients as well.
- Earlier in the year, many individuals infected by Coronavirus were dropping dead on the road before receiving treatment. This was happening due to low oxygen in their blood, medical term known as ‘Happy Hypoxia’ where oxygen saturation was decreasing over time, but patients were not showing symptoms until they were critically ill. To combat this, as of June 2020, oxygen saturations for COVID-19 patients are being monitored, and if oxygen saturation reaches 93% or less, patients are being transported to the hospital.
- Antivirals; Favipiravir and Remdesivir are two medications that being used to prevent patients from becoming severely infected and can cure them before they go into Hypoxia.
- As of June 2020, medications such as Steroids are being used to prevent cytokine storm in few patients, which is a patient dying not only due to COVID-19, but also from their own immune system responding to Cytokine Storm.
- People with Hypoxia are treated by getting them to lie down in a prone position, which is on their stomach, and their condition becomes better. Aside from instructing patients to lie down in prone position, a chemical known as Alpha Defensin, which causes patients white blood cells to cause micro clots in blood vessels of the lungs. To prevent this, Colchicine can be used to treat patients.
*Colchicine is available through ADV-Care Pharmacy!
To keep in mind, individuals that are infected with COVID-19 after June 2020 are more likely to survive in comparison to the individuals that were infected in February 2020. Let’s continue to follow precautions set out by Public Health and wear masks and practice social distancing.
