How to isolate people infected with the new coronavirus at home to prevent severe illness? During the live broadcast of the “New Crown Epidemic Prevention Big Guy Talk” series hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Health and Health Commission, the Municipal Science and Technology Commission, and the Municipal Health Promotion Commission tonight, Zhong Ming, director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, said that during the period of home isolation, if you are in the In addition to cold symptoms such as fever, cough, nasal congestion, runny nose, etc., you also feel chest tightness, shortness of breath, easy to breathe, or blood oxygen saturation monitoring is lower than 95%, it is recommended to go to the hospital for treatment.
Who is more likely to develop severe disease after being infected with the new crown?
After being infected with the new coronavirus, some people are asymptomatic infections without obvious discomfort; some people have symptoms such as fever and cough. Zhong Ming introduced that generally there is pneumonia in the lungs, and CT proves that there is viral pneumonia, which is ordinary pneumonia. On this basis, if there are signs of hypoxemia, such as blood oxygen content less than 93%, or respiratory rate greater than 30 times per minute, or obvious symptoms of chest tightness and shortness of breath, it will be classified as severe at this time. Therefore, if a patient has some symptoms of pneumonia and the above-mentioned conditions, it indicates that the patient may be developing into a severe disease, and must be closely monitored. And when the patient needs one or several means of life support, it is a critical illness.
Zhong Ming reminded that if there are these types of people in the family, once they are infected with the new crown, they are more likely to develop severe illness, and they need to focus on: one is the elderly; the other is suffering from severe hypertension, diabetes and other basic diseases; Tumor patients who have undergone chemotherapy; fourth, patients with autoimmune diseases who have recently taken hormones or other immunosuppressive drugs; fifth, particularly obese people with a BMI greater than 35.
In addition, there is another group of people who also belong to the focus group, that is, people who are overtired and have irregular work and rest. “The immune system is very fragile and requires regular work and rest and good nutrition for maintenance. Therefore, people who don’t eat well, sleep well, or are extremely tired will have weakened immunity, which can easily lead to severe illness,” he said.
So, do children and pregnant women belong to high-risk groups? Zhong Ming said that according to clinical experience and literature reports in recent years, the proportion of children who develop severe illness after being infected with the new coronavirus is the lowest, and there is no evidence that the proportion of pregnant women who develop severe illness is significantly different from that of ordinary peers.
Blood oxygen monitoring, accurate measurement is more important than expensive instruments
Many elderly people will show “silent hypoxia” after getting the new crown. If it is not discovered in time, it will often cause irreversible consequences. Zhong Ming suggested that if you have an elderly person at home, you might as well prepare a finger-clip oximeter to monitor blood oxygen levels at any time.
The prices of oximeters on the market vary greatly, ranging from tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan. Zhong Ming believes that since the blood oxygen monitoring technology is quite mature, there is no need to pursue high-priced instruments, as long as qualified products that meet the technical standards, tens of dollars of products are enough.
Zhong Ming specially reminded that it is more important to use the finger-clip oximeter accurately than the product price. Since the working principle of the oximeter is to obtain blood oxygen information through some signal changes of the fingertip pulse, when measuring, you should completely stick your finger in the oximeter, and wait for the heartbeat displayed by the instrument to be relatively stable. The blood oxygen saturation reading is more accurate. He explained that this is because it takes a process for the oximeter to read the correct signal, “we need to wait patiently for the signal to stabilize.”
If you can’t buy an oximeter for a while, Zhong Ming suggested that you can initially judge whether they are hypoxic by observing the color of the lips and nails of the elderly. Typically, oxygen-rich blood is bright red, while blood that is less oxygenated is darker in color. If the lips and nails of the elderly are purple, there may be a risk of hypoxemia.
However, he does not recommend using the blood oxygen monitoring function on smart watches and sports bracelets for blood oxygen monitoring, because these additional functions do not necessarily meet medical standards.
In addition to blood oxygen saturation, there are other hidden signs worthy of attention in the process of developing severe disease in elderly patients with new coronavirus infection. For example, conventionally, when a person has a fever, the heart rate will increase by about 12 times per minute when the body temperature rises by 1°C. Zhong Ming said that if some elderly people have a fever, but their heartbeat does not speed up, or even slows down, it means that there may be more serious problems.
New Year’s Day and Spring Festival are approaching, attention should be paid to consolidating the immune system after recovery
The New Year’s Day and Spring Festival holidays are approaching, and many “Yangkang” citizens are already planning their long-lost holiday trips. Zhong Ming reminded that during holiday parties and entertainment, drinking and staying up late should be avoided as much as possible.
In fact, many “Yangkang” have already felt that although the nucleic acid has turned negative, their energy and physical strength have not yet fully recovered. Zhong Ming explained that this is because the immune system is an energy-intensive battle to clear the virus. After the “battle” is over, it takes a long period of recuperation to allow the body to fully recover.
He suggested that citizens should maintain regular work and rest, reasonable and sufficient nutrition after “Yangkang”, so that the immune system can fully consolidate and recover, and don’t rush to “release” yourself.
Similarly, when resuming exercise after “Yangkang”, Zhong Ming also suggested that you should do what you can according to your own condition to ensure that you can gradually resume exercise without fatigue. Including bathing, excessive temperature stimulation should also be avoided. It is advisable to take a short-term warm water shower. When the body has fully recovered, return to the original bathing habit.
“Everyone’s physique is different, and their usual physical condition and cardiopulmonary function are also different, so the time to reach a full recovery state is also different, and it is difficult to use a unified time to measure.” Zhong Ming emphasized, “My body I know the situation best, and after ‘Yangkang’, I should do what I can and be responsible to myself.”
Author: Xu Qimin
Editor in charge: Ren Quan
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