If the spread of the coronavirus is difficult to control for anything, it is for its particular way of going unnoticed. Contagion without symptoms or with signs identical to those of a common cold or flu makes it difficult to stop. It is well known that Being infected and not knowing it can have serious consequences if the virus reaches the groups vulnerable. A circumstance that is happening in the same hospitals.
The specialist doctor of the Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Unit of the Hospital de Valme, Nicholas Merchantwarns of the increase among patients admitted to the Nosocomial infectionsthat is, those contracted inside the hospital, due, for the most part, to the transmission of the virus from own family environment.
“In fact, we are seeing a majority of nosocomial cases of Covid-19, i.e. infections detected in patients after hospitalization and which may be due to transmission from the family environment that visits the patient and which may present mild symptoms without knowing that they are due to the virus,” explains the statement specialist to this newspaper. “Therefore, our recommendation is always take extreme precautions when visiting relatives and comply with precautionary measures such as the constant use of the mask and hand hygiene,” he adds.
The doctor used his personal Twitter profile to warn the population of this possibility and its serious consequences. In the post, Dr. Merchant warns of the increased presence of Covid in recent weeks observed from the trenches of his unit, as well as the dangers of false negatives with antigen testing as one of the consequences of the current characteristics of the virus, with the new Omicron lineages, and the effect of the anti-Covid vaccination.
“The sensitivity of self-diagnostic tests continues to be high and most cases will be correctly diagnosed by this method as long as it is used at the right time and in the right way, but there is data from some research groups which indicate that with the The last bloodlines of Omicron the sensitivity of these tests may be slightly lower than previous variants and lineages”, explains the doctor, who, in this circumstance, recommends using a PCR in case the symptoms persist.
At this point, full normality, from a health point of view, has not yet arrived. This autumn/winter the landscape will not yet be completely predictable. It’s the first time that influenza, the rest of the pathogens affecting the respiratory tract and SARS-CoV-2 coincide at the same time without the obligatory nature of the masks in the most closed places in a cold period of the year in which, in fact, we live more indoors. With all these ingredients, the doctor thinks it is “expected” an increase in the number of cases, but argues that “at the moment there is not enough information to be able to judge whether we will experience a significant new wave of cases”.
In this sense, he alludes to the difficulty of knowing the real extent of the virus given that the new surveillance strategies control the contagion only in people over the age of 60 and in vulnerable groups among which, for the moment – he indicates – “the monitoring of incidence remains stable”. “I understand, given the availability of self-test, many of the cases diagnosed by the patient themselves can do so not be registered“, To add.
Given this situation, which is assumed to be repeated every year with the arrival of autumn and winter, Dr. Merchante assures that “vaccination is the essential measureHowever, the doctor warns that, although vaccination significantly reduces the risk of severe Covid, “there are populations at risk, such as immunocompromised patients and elderly patients with some comorbidities, who may still be at some risk of progressing to pneumonia or forms serious of Covid “.
“For all of this, it is essential scrupulously comply with the precautionary measures of hand hygiene and use of the mask when we visit relatives in these risk groups, avoiding doing so if we have symptoms of respiratory infection or fever,” he insists.
Along the same lines, the doctor argues that “it would be necessary to go back to do pedagogy on the individual responsibility one has in accompanying a hospitalized person and on the risks to which those in a vulnerable situation should not be exposed”.
