Basic steps can help reduce spread of coronavirus

MOSES LAKE — The COVID-19 outbreak has wreaked havoc around the world, around the U.S., around Washington and Grant County, down to the community and individual level.

There’s plenty of research underway, but as yet, no cure for the virus and no vaccine. But there are things people can do to help reduce the risk of catching or spreading it.

The virus first was identified in Washington in January. Dr. Jazab Sheikh, chief medical director for Samaritan Healthcare’s Pioneer and Patton clinics, said treatment, research – and even the virus itself – are evolving. At the individual level, people can do what Sheikh called “the basics.”

Those basics include avoiding large gatherings, staying about two arms’ length (an estimated six feet) away from other people and wearing a mask that covers the nose and mouth when going out in public. Frequent hand washing or hand sanitizing is recommended, and so is frequent cleaning of surfaces. People should cover their mouth when they cough, and stay home if they feel sick.

“It does help. It does minimize the spread of the virus,” Sheikh said.

With the virus so new, researchers still are looking for vaccines and treatments. As of now “you treat the symptoms,” Sheikh said. The virus still runs its course.

Symptoms include shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, a cough, a runny nose, body aches, a sore throat, headaches and suddenly losing the sense of taste or smell. A list of symptoms is regularly updated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its website.

Symptoms take from two days to two weeks to manifest themselves, according to the CDC website.

Samaritan Healthcare opened the Respiratory Virus Evaluation Center (RVEC) in mid-March to help identify people who have coronavirus – and those who don’t have it. “If you are symptomatic, very early, right away, you should come to the RVEC,” Sheikh said.

The RVEC is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. People should call the 24-hour hotline first, 509-764-3331.

People who think they might, or might not, have coronavirus can consult a medical professional (like the ones in the RVEC) and let the doctor, physician assistant or nurse practitioner decide if a test is needed.

“We want the community to come in and be examined,” Sheik said.

There are symptoms that require immediate medical attention. People who have trouble breathing, have bluish lips, experience persistent pain in the chest, can’t stay awake or are confused should seek care immediately, according to the CDC.

The virus is so new there’s still no consensus about how dangerous it is. According to information from the journal Nature, scientists may have overestimated how many people would die at the start of the epidemic, then may have underestimated it.

People are more liable to have complications, including serious complications and death, if they have underlying conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Age also is a factor, and so is ethnicity.

Researchers are finding some treatments that help the symptoms, and are saving people that otherwise might die, Nature said. Existing drugs have been found that seem to interfere with the virus’s ability to replicate, and others are effective in treating the symptoms of some critically ill patients.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].