How to stay safe through COVID-19.

Like me I’m sure you were not aware how often you touch your face every day. When I have to go to town once a week to gather supplies, I am acutely aware of how irritating my hair is against my cheek.

Have you wondered why we have been instructed to avoid touching our face by the WHO? This is because COVID-19, enters your body through receptor cells on the mucous membranes lining your mouth and nose (Xu et al., 2020). This virus can live on the plastic and metal you find on grocery store trolleys and handrails for up to 3 days (“New Carona Virus Stable for Hours,” 2020).

Things you can do to prevent the virus entering your mouth:

• Disinfect the trolley before you even touch the handle.
• Wear latex (or equivalent) gloves when needing to peruse items in the store.
• Tie your hair back, so that it does not irritate your face when out.
• Clean your own door handles, steering wheel, gear knob and surfaces regularly, to ensure no transfer of residual virus.

The danger with this virus, and why it is spreading so quickly is because you feel no symptoms for approximately 5.2 days from contracting it (Rothan & Byrareddy, 2020). But you are still unknowingly leaving little baby COVIDs all over town (Zheng, Xu, Wang, Ning, & Bi, 2020).

Once the symptoms do start to show, the person who contracted the illness will start with a fever, a cough and a feeling of fatigue. As the illness progresses the individual will experience diarrhea, shortness of breath and will notice enlarged glands (Rothan & Byrareddy, 2020). Of the 2977 confirmed deaths as of 13/3/2020 worldwide (Guo et al., 2020), the sufferers were older, and had pre-existing health conditions (Wang, Yang, Li, Wen, & Zhang, 2020).

Plans you can make to strengthen yourself:

• Eat plenty fresh fruit and vegetables and drink enough water 1 glass per 10kg of body mass per day.
• Reduce alcohol and caffeinated drink intake.
• Take time to relax each day. Speak to a counsellor if your anxiety levels are rising (At Thrive Wellness Hub, Zoom consults are available to keep you safe).
• Ensure you have 8 hours of sleep every night.
• If you have an autoimmune condition, speak to your Herbalist or Naturopath about formulating a plan to support your immune system without triggering a flare in your symptoms (Zoom consults available).

Reference List

Guo, Y.-R., Cao, Q.-D., Hong, Z.-S., Tan, Y.-Y., Chen, S.-D., Jin, H.-J., . . . Yan, Y. (2020). The origin, transmission and clinical therapies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak – an update on the status. Military Medical Research, 7(1), 11-11. doi:10.1186/s40779-020-00240-0

New Carona Virus Stable for Hours. (2020). National Institure of Health.

Rothan, H. A., & Byrareddy, S. N. (2020). The epidemiology and pathogenesis of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. Journal of Autoimmunity, 102433. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaut.2020.102433

Wang, Z., Yang, B., Li, Q., Wen, L., & Zhang, R. (2020). Clinical Features of 69 Cases with Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Wuhan, China. Clinical Infectious Diseases. doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa272

Xu, H., Zhong, L., Deng, J., Peng, J., Dan, H., Zeng, X., . . . Chen, Q. (2020). High expression of ACE2 receptor of 2019-nCoV on the epithelial cells of oral mucosa. International journal of oral science, 12(1), 8-8. doi:10.1038/s41368-020-0074-x

Zheng, R., Xu, Y., Wang, W., Ning, G., & Bi, Y. (2020). Spatial transmission of COVID-19 via public and private transportation in China. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 101626. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101626