Although the low temperature was not felt this season, respiratory symptoms increased and were confused or merged with allergies.
The sudden change in temperature does not give the body time to adapt, said Mabel Peralta, coordinator of the hospital’s respiratory unit.
Furthermore, given the dry environment, it affects the emergence of infectious respiratory symptoms and allergic symptoms, which are often confused with certain acute respiratory diseases.
According to the doctor’s request, if you have respiratory symptoms, it is recommended not to go to school or work, because doing so will bring the virus home, spread it quickly, and infect all members, whether children or the elderly, thus forming a chain that is difficult to cure. cut. Therefore, it is recommended to self-isolate, rest and use a mask that covers the chin and nose.
Frequent handwashing, ventilating the room, staying hydrated and, most importantly, preventing disease through vaccinations are still recommendations.
Regarding the frequent changes in temperature that lead to increased respiratory allergy symptoms, Dr. Peralta said, for example, our body does not have time to adapt to this situation. When a person goes out in a shirt and comes back in a jacket in the afternoon, and vice versa. This is what happens “when an allergic picture comes along and an infectious picture is added”.
Allergy pictures manifest as frequent sneezing, nasal congestion, tearing, itchy eyes, nasal itching, dry cough and other upper respiratory symptoms. After the acute phase, persistent cough and congestion are difficult to distinguish, especially common viruses such as rhinovirus, which manifest as the common cold.
“The difference between an allergy and a rhinovirus is a fever and general malaise with mild headache and body aches.”
In addition to viruses such as SARS-COV-2 and influenza, there are other respiratory viruses such as adenovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, which tend to be complicated by other symptoms such as bronchitis or pneumonia itself, especially at the extremes of life Down. as young children and older adults.
Doctors from the Faculty of Medicine therefore stress the importance of breaking the chain of transmission, because for a young person in good health, this means 7 days, and for an elderly person with comorbidities, it can mean hospitalization and pneumonia .
“The most effective ways to reduce this are isolation, room ventilation, use of masks and hand washing,” he said.
Likewise, Dr. Peralta recalls that there are vaccines against influenza, COVID-19, because there are still cases and also for patients at risk.
“One of the factors that contributes to this is that a lot of times we don’t think about it, we forget what we learned during the pandemic,” he laments.
At the Hospital de Clínicas, the Respiratory Service visits the clinic through an appointment system (Monday to Friday 07:00 to 12:00) via WhatsApp (tel: (0991) 870-012).
They reported 133 cases of COVID-19
The Health Surveillance Service reported that in the last evaluated epidemiological week (SE)33, 133 positive cases of Covid-19 were detected, a slight decrease compared to the previous week. But as the retrospective data was updated, the first three weeks averaged 155 cases per week.
Also, the number of samples processed has decreased over the past 8 weeks, but the positive rate for (SE) 33 increased by 9% last week, compared to 2% for EW 26.