Saturday 14 March 2020

COVID-19: perspective from a medic

These few months have been greatly influenced by the effect of coronavirus. Many conferences and flights are cancelled; plans are postponed until undecided time. A month ago, my country was declared zero case, which I dont believe in much since almost all neighbouring countries are affected and how can there's no case at all? Early March there were two confirmed positive cases, and the whole nation goes wild. Disposable mask and hand sanitizers are out of stock; people went to buy groceries to stock them in their home. I am working in a hospital and masks are essential themselves because we treat patients all the time, not knowing if they have respiratory infections if we dont do anamnesis and physical examination well enough. Some patients even disclose their health history even if we ask them, which is nonsense for me since 80% of the diagnosis is built from a good anamnesis. Masks are sold out almost everywhere and if not, they are selling it in an extremely high prices. It's different from Korea where all informations about the spreading are shared to the community so that everyone can take precautions from it. Government advises to reduce grouping in large community, avoid crowded places, wear masks, hand sanitizing, and they even make a drive thru to check COVID-19 for people with flu symptoms. Im amazed with their fast and hardworking measurement; the government here should learn from them in handling the diseases. Of course I cant avoid to reduce contact with other people because of my job. Washing hands frequently and avoiding from getting sick are the only things we can do right now. Hopefully this will end soon and everything gets better. Stay safe everyone!




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