A LABORATORY test in Australia showed that the five-year-boy who was quarantined in a local hospital after he arrived from Wuhan, China with symptoms of respiratory disease was negative of the novel coronavirus disease. We can all heave a sigh of relief. There is no confirmed case of the deadly disease in Cebu. Not yet, anyway.
I wish I could say never. But the fact is that the danger will always be present that one recent traveler will arrive in Cebu unknowingly carrying the disease and without being flagged despite the precautionary measures that our authorities have put in place. Even if we prohibit all international travels to the Philippines now, there is still no assurance that the dreaded virus will not reach our shores, assuming that it hasn’t yet.
Remember the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) that also originated in China, in Guangdong Province more particularly, in early 2003? Sars spread to 26 countries despite the strict precautionary steps that their governments took. By the time Sars subsided, it had already infected more than 8,000 people and killed almost 10 percent of them, according to a British Broadcasting Company (BBC) report. The BBC said that some of those infected were doctors and that the victims “went from having flu-like symptoms to severe pneumonia within days.”
In a way the Sars outbreak prepared Chinese and world health officials on how to respond to the new coronavirus strain. When Sars broke out, medical science was unprepared. That “was the first time a coronavirus had come to the attention as a pathogen that could spread around the world” so swiftly, BBC quoted the WHO’s head of infectious disease unit as saying. “So in the beginning it wasn’t known what it (Sars) was and nobody really looked for coronaviruses such as they are doing now.”
But whether the Sars experience will help health authorities contain this new outbreak quicker, meaning before it becomes a world epidemic remains a question mark. Thus, the appeal for precautions, including the wearing of surgical masks.
We also wore masks in 2003 although not as frequently as residents of Hongkong, which was among the hardest hit by the disease, did. Now, 17 years later, we see more masked people in public places. It is as if the mask has become a fashion statement.
But just how effective are surgical masks in avoiding coronavirus infection? A recent article in the New York Times asked the same question: Do they work?
“We worry about people feeling they’re getting more protection from the mask than they really are,” Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, chairwoman of the public health committee for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said in the Times article. Surgical masks are in fact the “last line of defense,” she said.
“Washing your hands and avoiding people who are ill is way more important than wearing a mask,” she added, explaining that “because surgical masks are not fitted or sealed, they leave gaps around the mouth, so you’re not filtering all of the air that comes in.”
Still, the masks can still help in avoiding picking up infections provided that they are worn properly and used consistently, specialists interviewed by the Times agreed.
But how do you wear a mask properly? Some tips from the experts: Don’t put your hand underneath the mask to scratch your face or rub your nose. And don’t take the mask off to answer a phone call.
It’s a little inconvenient but you better get used to it unless you’re wearing the mask as a fashion statement.