Respiratory disease promotion content

Priority should be given to physical protection of the respiratory mucosa to block pathogens. Symptoms should be classified before taking medication. High-risk groups should intervene in advance even if they have mild symptoms. More than 90% of the other "special prevention and control prescriptions" spread online are not universal, so there is no need to blindly follow the trend.

Last week, I treated a second-grade child in his class. There was an outbreak of influenza A in his class last week, and 21 of the 45 students asked for leave. His mother put on a regular medical surgical mask for him every day, sprayed his nasal cavity with saline twice before and after school, and washed his hands and changed his coat when he came home before touching anything at home. The child was bouncing around without any problems. Experts in different fields have different opinions on the scale of protection: Most experts in the disease control system believe that wearing a medical surgical mask is enough for open situations such as commuting and going to school. Long-term wearing of N95 will keep the nasal mucosa in a high-humidity environment, reducing the barrier ability, making it easier to be targeted by pathogens. ； However, most of our clinical front-line doctors suggest that if you go to crowded places such as hospitals, enclosed shopping malls, and subways during peak hours, it is safer to wear an N95. It is better to be depressed for dozens of minutes than to have a fever for three days and a cough for half a month. Both opinions are supported by clinical data. You can choose flexibly according to the travel scene of the day, and you do not have to listen to the "standard answer" of one side.

Don't think that everything will be fine if you take good protection. If you do get infected, the most likely pitfall is the medication process. Last winter, I admitted a 28-year-old young man. His fever reached 37.8 degrees and he panicked. He took the ibuprofen, fentanyl, and Lianhua Qingwen at home in turn. The fever went away, but he felt nauseous and vomiting the next day. His transaminases were found to be 5 times the normal value. He was hospitalized and had his liver preserved for a week before being discharged. Nowadays, there is quite a controversy about the use of antibiotics: most colleagues in primary health care recommend checking blood routine first to confirm that it is a viral infection and if the blood count is not elevated, do not use antibiotics such as cephalosporins and amoxicillin, and just rely on your own immunity to avoid cultivating drug-resistant bacteria. ； However, many colleagues in pediatrics and geriatrics think that children and the elderly have weak immunity. If they cough for more than 3 days in a row, even if the blood count is normal, low-dose antibiotics can be used to prevent the infection from spreading to the lower respiratory tract to avoid developing pneumonia. There is no absolute right or wrong between the two options. The core is to judge based on your own basic physical condition, and do not take medicine randomly.

There is another group of people who are most likely to be ignored, which are high-risk groups with underlying diseases. Last month, there was a 72-year-old man with COPD. At first, he just had a runny nose and was a little tired. He thought it was just a common cold at home. He was so breathless that he couldn't get out of bed in three days. When he came to the emergency department for a X-ray, he already had severe pneumonia. He was discharged after two weeks of hospitalization. If he had been prescribed antiviral drugs when he first developed symptoms, he would not have suffered this problem at all. There are also different directions for prevention of high-risk groups: Most colleagues in the geriatric department recommend that people over 65 years old should, in addition to getting flu vaccines every year, also take the 13-valent and 23-valent pneumonia vaccines, which can reduce the risk of severe illness by more than 80%. ； Some experts in the immunology department believe that if you have underlying diseases such as asthma and COPD, you don’t have to wait for the epidemic season. Taking immune modulators 1-2 months in advance can also reduce the probability of infection. You can choose according to your own financial situation and physical condition. You don’t have to think that “if you don’t get vaccinated, something will definitely happen” or “taking immune modulators is like paying IQ tax”.

To be honest, there is really no need to believe many small folk remedies spread on the Internet. During the epidemic at the end of last year, someone in our department tried to smoke vinegar in the duty room. The smoke made everyone cough and have runny noses, but no viruses were killed. ； Steamed oranges and steamed oranges with salt can at most relieve the symptoms of dry and sore throat. If the cough is really caused by bacterial infection, eating 10 of them will be useless. ； As for vitamin C's prevention of infection, it's even more nonsense. If you stay up until two or three o'clock every day and eat takeaways that are heavy in oil and salt, even if you take a bottle of vitamin C a day, you will still catch a cold.

In fact, respiratory diseases are not as scary as everyone thinks. You don’t need to stock up on a cupboard of medicines when the season changes, and don’t take it completely seriously. Pay more attention to the condition of your respiratory tract. If your nose feels dry or your throat feels itchy when you wake up in the morning, drink two more sips of warm water and wear a mask when going out. It is more effective than any fancy home remedies.