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  • 2 days ago

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00:05We think that probably people incubate the infection for up to seven days and then they
00:11tend to present with a fever, a temperature over 37.8 degrees and often a dry cough and by that
00:19I mean a cough which doesn't produce any phlegm. Other quite common symptoms include muscle pains
00:26and a feeling of utter fatigue, complete exhaustion, feeling a bit steamrolled and around one in four
00:33patients will also notice either a loss of sense of smell or a loss of sense of taste and the
00:40reason
00:41we talk about self-isolating with symptoms for seven days is that by the time you get to day seven
00:47most patients are feeling better and they will be shedding very very little virus so will pose
00:53minimal risk to anyone that they should come into contact with. If you are self-isolating and you
00:59still have symptoms the advice is that you should continue to self-isolate and the symptoms that are
01:05most important is that of a fever. Some of you are asking if it's okay to moisturise your hands after
01:11washing them. Absolutely, I would be inclined actually to when you're using a pump action for example for
01:19moisturiser is to rather than using your fingers is to pump with the side of your hand just so that
01:25you're getting into the habit really of touching as few things as you possibly can. If you happen to
01:31be out and you need to get into a lift you know use the knuckle of your finger try to
01:35open doors with
01:36your elbow if you've got taps then you can use your elbow with a lever tap then you know do
01:42so.
01:42And some of you are asking what emergency kit we should have at home now I'm going to preface this
01:47by asking you please not to stockpile. I think it would be really useful for people to have a
01:54thermometer at home because we are quite definite about the guidelines for self-isolation it's that
02:01temperature of over 37.8 so I think a thermometer is a good thing to have at home. And a
02:07basic first
02:08aid kit which probably needs to include paracetamol. There have been some queries over whether or not
02:15we can use ibuprofen to control the fever or muscle pains. And the advice is to stick with
02:21paracetamol so do check your flu and cold remedies in your cupboard if they contain ibuprofen then I
02:27would avoid them. And there is a theory that possibly ibuprofen could in some way cause worsening
02:34inflammation in the lungs. That's not proven but the advice at the moment is to avoid ibuprofen
02:39and use paracetamol to treat your symptoms.
02:45So the most vulnerable absolutely the over 70s and those people who've received a letter from the
02:52government identifying them as being more vulnerable more at risk should definitely stay at home.
02:58We reckon that every infected person probably infects two and a half other people and those
03:05two and a half other people will affect two and a half other people and so on. What that means
03:09is
03:09that within 30 days if I have not taken any precautions and I have spread the virus to two
03:17and a half people 30 days down the line I would be responsible for 400 infections. Now if I practice
03:25social distancing and if I stay at home as much as I can and I reduce that number to one
03:33and a quarter
03:33the difference in 30 days instead of being responsible for 400 infections I would be responsible
03:41for 14 one four infections. So you can really see how if we all stay at home as much as
03:49we possibly can
03:50and practice social distancing we can have a massive impact on this disease and literally save a life.
03:59If you live with somebody who's symptomatic how long should you self-isolate for? So this gets a
04:05little bit complicated you may I've got a graphic actually on my website which is drdawn.com you might
04:12want to have a little look at but I'm going to try and explain it to you. So say I
04:16get an infection
04:17I which we presume is COVID-19 I must self-isolate for seven days and as long as I'm well
04:24at the end
04:25of that seven days I can go out and if I still have a fever I can't I have to
04:30continue to self-isolate
04:31until the fever has subsided. Anybody who lives in my house however from the first day of my symptoms
04:39we call that day one must self-isolate for 14 days. Thinking behind that is that it could take up
04:47to
04:47seven days for anybody that I live with to develop symptoms so they must stay in for 14 days. If
04:53say
04:54for example one of the people I live with develop symptoms on let's say day two they must self-isolate
05:01for seven days so that's until day nine and as long as they're well they can actually go out at
05:06that
05:06point. If however somebody that I live with develops symptoms let's say on day 12 so they've already
05:14self-isolated for 12 days but now they've become symptomatic I'm afraid they then have to stay in
05:19for another seven days so that's effectively until day 19 or until they are asymptomatic until that
05:26fever has settled. That's it for now perhaps I'll be back with some more of your questions soon
05:33um I hope you found that helpful and if you have any questions please do post them to us
05:37and we will try and answer as many as we possibly can. Thank you
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