The five most useful ways to prevent coronavirus infection
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Corona virus infection is spreading rapidly around the world. The situation of panic is being seen all over the world.
Thousands of new cases are coming up every day while hundreds of people are dying. Lockdown conditions are being seen in many cities and countries across the world.
Air flights, international events and proms are being canceled all over the world.
Europe has emerged as the new center of this disease, while the rate of spread of infection in Latin America, USA and Middle East countries is increasing daily.
By March 24, more than 16,700 people have died due to corona virus infection while more than 3,87,000 infections have been seen.
Control of infection –
However, some countries have managed to control the spread of infection of this virus.
The strange coincidence is that these are countries which are geographically located Asian countries close to China. This virus originated in China.
But China’s neighboring countries appear to be able to control the infection of this virus.
Tolbert Nenswah, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told the BBC, “There are some countries that have controlled its spread, we should all learn from it. I am not talking only about China, which has aggressively controlled it. Although it will not be possible to implement those methods in democratic countries. But there are other countries, which have used other effective methods.
Corona virus infection –
For example, in Taiwan with a population of 2.36 million in China’s neighborhood, there were 215 reported cases of corona virus infection by March 24, while only two deaths were confirmed.
There are 386 cases in Hong Kong with a population of 75 lakhs and four people have died in two months. However, during the last one week, there has been an increase in the number of infections here. On 24th alone, 101 new cases have been reported.
As of March 24, there have been 1140 cases in Japan with a population of 120 million, while 9037 cases have been reported in South Korea. In both these countries, in recent weeks there has been a decrease in both cases of infection and death.
According to epidemiological expert Tolbert Nenshaw, these countries rapidly implemented effective provisions to curb the corona virus infection.
The five most effective provisions implemented in these countries are:
1. Check, check and re-check –
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the most important factor in preventing the spread of this epidemic is its early detection.
Experts whom the BBC spoke to also confirm this. Without knowing how many people are infected, you can neither know the effect of this nor can you take effective steps.
Professor John Johnson of the Epidemiology of Temple University, Agree with this. According to him, this is the most differentiating factor, countries which insisted on examined, there was a decrease in new cases, in countries where there was no emphasis on examined, cases of infection increased rapidly.
South Korea tests ten thousand people every day, this means that more people than the United States examined in a whole month, South Korea had examined more people in two days. Krais told the BBC.
The Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has also said that the most important factor in preventing this epidemic is the screening of people with early symptoms.
He said in a recent press conference, “We are sending the same message to all countries – Check, check and re-check. Every country should examined all suspicious cases – they cannot face this epidemic blindly. “
Corona infection is being examined only after severe symptoms are seen in most places, World Health Organization Director General Tedros has warned countries around the world. He said that those who have early symptoms should be examined, only then it will be possible to control its infection.
2. Keeping the infected patient in isolation –
Professor Krauss Johnson says, “South Korea and China have done a great job in identifying, examine and keeping patients at isolation.” According to him, the examine helps in sending the infected person in isolation, as well as the spread of the epidemic. Not only this, it also helps in early identification of new cases.
According to Krauss Johnson, the Chinese authorities have shown great proactivity to identify new cases and due to this, there has been a decrease in cases of infection.
Krauss Johnson told, People suffering from high fever were sent to the Fever Clinic and examined for flu and Covid-19. If Covid-19 was found positive in the test, they were kept in isolation, it was called Quarantine Hotels. So that they could not get in touch with their family members.
Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong adopted another way – suspected patients were kept in solitude in their homes. A provision was made to pay a fine of three thousand dollars to those who broke this rule.
Due to this strategy, they managed to keep an eye on potential patients. Nenswah has also told that people who came in contact with infected people in Taiwan and Singapore were monitored. This was done on the basis of interaction with infected people.
He said, On March 12, there were 445 suspected cases in Hong Kong, but 14,900 people, including all those who came in contact with them, were examined, 19 were found to be infected with the corona virus.
3. Preparation and quick action –
Nen Wah himself has been a part of the team that controls the Ebola virus infection in West Africa. According to him, the most effective way to control any virus is to take effective steps to control it at an accelerated pace before the infection spreads.
“Countries such as Taiwan and Singapore took swift action to identify new cases and isolate them, proving to be a decisive step to control the epidemic,” he said.
An article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that the biggest reason for the success of Corona infection in Taiwan was the willingness of this country to deal with such situations. A command center was established in 2003 to control any such epidemic in Taiwan.
Many research institutions and government agencies work under this center. It was founded during the threat of SARS and since then it has practiced many times to deal with such challenges and has done many researches.
Nen Wah says, It is important to be prepared to take effective steps and to adopt effective methods at an early stage. In Europe and America, we see that there was neither preparedness in the countries and there was a delay in taking effective steps, Nen Wah says.
A case of corona virus to person-to-person infection spread in mid-January, even before Taiwan started screening all passengers arriving from Wuhan. Hong Kong commissioned the fever measuring station at all its ports from January 3.
Arrangements were also made to keep all the travelers coming from abroad in solitude for 14 days. At the same time, doctors were ordered to report fever-respiratory problems and all the patients returning from the area of ​​Wuhan. According to Nen Wah, the steps taken in Hong Kong also proved to be effective.
4. Social distancing –
Nen Wah says ,Once the infection has entered your country, then there is no effective prevention measure,” Nen Wah says. Social distancing is the most effective way to save the population from getting caught in such situation – this is also evident from the examples of Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Hong Kong asked its people to do ‘work from home’ in January itself, all schools were closed and all kinds of social events were banned.
According to The Straits Times newspaper, Singapore did not close its schools but adopted a system of daily examine and monitoring of students and academic staff.
5. Raising awareness of cleanliness –
The World Health Organization has said that regularly washing hands and staying hygienically is an important step towards preventing corona virus infection.
Nen Wah says, Many Asian countries learned from the SARS crisis of 2003. They knew that cleanliness does not make people sick and also reduces the possibility of infection spreading to others.
There are ‘Antibacterial gel’ stations in the streets of Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, from where people sanitize themselves. Apart from this, there is a trend of wearing masks in these countries. Although wearing a mask is not always an effective way to prevent infection of the corona virus, but with the help of it, the risk of infection due to sneezing and coughing can be reduced.
