{"id":100546,"date":"2020-03-30T16:56:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T23:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=100546"},"modified":"2020-03-30T16:56:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T23:56:08","slug":"suggestions-for-staying-healthy-and-prevent-covid-19-infection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/03\/30\/suggestions-for-staying-healthy-and-prevent-covid-19-infection\/","title":{"rendered":"Suggestions for staying healthy and prevent COVID-19 infection:"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunil J Wimalawansa Professor of Medicine, Endocrinology, & Nutrition, USA<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Dear friends:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I haven’t seen any medical society from Sri Lanka providing safe practices and guidelines for avoiding COVID-19, I thought of sending this in a summarized form.\u00a0 I hope these and the links provided at the end of this email will be useful and save lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is time that everyone takes personal responsibility and actions\nneeded seriously, rather than waiting for the government to take care of\nyourselves.  The latter will not be materialized.  This includes but\nnot limited to engaging in right personal hygiene (no short cuts please),\nkeeping the distance of 6 feet or more between people, avoiding crowded places,\nfrequent hand sanitation, minimize travel, wearing face masks when going out,\nand other essential hygienic maneuvers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One must take extreme precautions to safeguard yourself and\nothers.  You never know who is infected, until it is too late.  So,\neat healthily and stay at home and be safe.  Thus,\nunless you invite a person<\/strong> for a specific purpose, there\nis no reason at all for anyone to come inside your home:\nIt\u2019s your home, your privacy, and your family’s safety.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until proven otherwise, assume that he\/she is bringing the\nCOVID-19 virus with them.  If anyone insists that they want to talk to\nyou, speak to them outside your home (you do not even need to go out), but\nwearing a face mask.  Don’t be afraid to refuse entrance to strangers,\nincluding any official: Why taking unnecessary risk.  It is the right\nthing to do to safeguard you and the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All healthcare workers and others working in the frontlines are\nmost vulnerable: they must <\/strong>be provided with effective face\nmasks by the government and should take the utmost precautions. \nIndividuals should avoid visiting hospitals and clinics to see patients,\nvisiting relatives, crowded markets, and any other exposures and\ngatherings.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eating herbs, such as garlic, rinsing nose, drinking hot water or\nalcohol, will not help.  Work from home.  But use the\ndescribed stringent precautionary principles, when going out of the house at\nthe workplace\/store, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you are now using ideally, N95 (3M) or another type of\neffective face masks, routinely.  Contrary to some faulty claims by\npoliticians, this is important to minimize airborne COVID-19 infection. \nThe use of standard surgical masks when seeing patients; while it protects\npatients, may not protect the doctors and nurses.  This might\nprovide a false sense of security and could be the reason why so many\nhealthcare persons getting infected with COVID-19.  Despite precautions,\nin the U.S. and several other countries, over the past two weeks, hundreds of\nhealthcare workers have contracted COVID-19 (e.g., over 160 is affected in\nBoston, MA, hospital system, alone).  Healthcare workers (all of them)\nvigorously working to protect you: affecting even one of them with COVID-19 is\ntoo many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together with handwashing with soap in running (warm) water for 20\nseconds, every time returning to the office and home is\nessential.  The virus efficiently can enter via all mucous\nmembranes, including eyes, nose, mouth (buccal mucosa), gastrointestinal tract\n(gut), and the genito-anal regions.  So, do NOT touch any of these areas\ntill you thoroughly wash your hands as described above.  Same after going\ninto any restroom\/toilet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 has a fatty outer covering it; thus it is sticky; that’s\nwhy soap and any detergent works; it erodes the outer fatty<\/em> covering\nthus, harming the COVID-19.  Footwear also gathers viruses.  Thus,\nconsider keeping outside footwear, “outside” the house or at least in\nthe porch or garage.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With reference to clothing: COVID-19 can stay on clothing and any\nother material (including shipping bags) for up to 10 hours.  A longer\nperiod in damp conditions and\/or with air conditioning.  Exposure of\nclothing to direct sunlight (outside the house) would help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fruits and vegetables can get easily contaminated\nin markets, by those carrying the virus, by coughing and touching them. \nPay extra attention and use your commonsense precautions.  Washing\nall food items, fruits, and vegetables, etc., in soap and water and rinse well,\nprior to use is helpful.  Vinegar or saltwater that traditionally used to\nkill bacteria in vegetables will not work against COVID-19, but\ndetergents will.  For sterilization of\nsurfaces, doorknobs, etc., spraying or rubbing diluted hypochlorite\nsolution (bleach) or soap is apparently sufficient. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rapid growth of virus:  At the current rate of spread (at\n33%; exponential growth phase) the viral load can double every 3-days. \nThus, in the USA, the number of infected people could exceed 10 million\nCOVID-19 positive patients in six-weeks\u2019 time, unless the expected infectious\npeaks are “flattened” through effective social\ndistancing and above mentioned all precautionary and proactive actions (not\nmerely by curfews).  However, the lack of access to food as a result\nof continued curfew (a third of the population is starving; it will lead to\nimmune degradation), is likely to make the situation worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, keeping the serum 25(OH)\nD levels in excess of 40 ng\/mL (100 nmol\/L) will markedly increase the\ninherent immunity (stimulating multiple immune pathways) in an\nindividual.  Maintaining such a level will reduce the chances of getting\nany Coronaviral infections and the severity if they get infected.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can be achieved by oral supplementation of 50,000 international\nunits (one capsule, once a week; or a collection of a number of capsules to\nmake a total of 50,000 IU) for approximately, 8  to 12-week period; till\nthe threat is over.  Alternatively, 30 to 45 minutes of daily\nexposure to direct sunlight (can be intermittent) of a “third of the skin\nsurface, between 9.30 AM and mid-day (afternoons are too hot to be out in\nthe sun), would generate an adequate amount of vitamin D to boost\nimmunity.  This simple process applies to all countries and everyone; it\ncosts nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current trend is that otherwise healthy younger people are now\ngetting the disease: it is no longer exclusively affecting the elderly. \nIn addition, younger people can be carriers of transmitting the disease. \nConsequently, they and any others should not visit elderly or sick people until\nthe crisis is over unless they directly caring them for.  Anyone visiting\nthem must strictly follow the mentioned hygiene and safety procedures,\nincluding wearing face masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are suggestions to keep\nyou and your loved ones healthy, and not considered as medical\nadvice.  If you have questions or concerns, please contact your healthcare\nprovider or the local health authority or hospital to obtain medical advice and\nadditional information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone must take the current threat from COVID-19 very\nseriously and collectively work together to eliminate the threat, by\nabiding the above-mentioned public health guidance and local rules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunil J Wimalawansa (suniljw@hotmail.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor of Medicine, Endocrinology, & Nutrition, USA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information (LinkedIn<\/strong>), a series of articles on\nCOVID-19:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/sunilwimalawansa\/detail\/recent-activity\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A scientific article on COVID written  on 5th January\n(in ResearchGate<\/strong>), predicted what will be happening in March:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/profile\/Sunil_Wimalawansa\/research<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

or <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/340102912_EJBPS-Prof_WImalawansa-COVID-19-March_2020s<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lay summary of the beneficial effects of vitamin D:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.healthline.com\/nutrition\/vitamin-d-coronavirus<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extensive information on vitamin D and coronaviruses, including\nCOVID-19:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/vitamindwiki.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunil J Wimalawansa Professor of Medicine, Endocrinology, & Nutrition, USA Dear friends: Since I haven’t seen any medical society from Sri Lanka providing safe practices and guidelines for avoiding COVID-19, I thought of sending this in a summarized form.\u00a0 I hope these and the links provided at the end of this email will be useful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-professor-sunil-j-wimalawansa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}