Health24.com | Touching your face is a coronavirus danger: tips to help you stop

Posted on 24/04/2020 by Boris Clair

You’ve been told over and over not to touch your face during the coronavirus pandemic, but that’s easier said than done.

Most people touch their face up to 23 times an hour and don’t even realise they’re doing it, a psychologist says.

“Typically, we’ll do something like shaking someone’s hand and then failing to wash our hands properly, followed by touching our faces and then we’re off to the races with an infection and symptoms that will show up in two to 14 days,” said Jim Pomerantz, a professor of psychological sciences at Rice University in Houston.

“It’s much better to prevent an infection than to try to deal with it after the fact, and that’s the purpose of our work here,” he said in a university news release.

Here are Pomerantz’s tips to keep your fingers off your face.

Ask a partner to alert you when you touch your face. Wear perfume or bracelets to remind you not to touch your face, and write down how many times you touch your face each day.
Remind others when you see them touching their face to stop.
Keep your hands busy. Put them in your pockets, hold a ball or a deck of cards, or make fists for one minute if you bring them near your face.
Keep your elbows off the table, sit in chairs without armrests or in the middle of the couch. If you find it is hard not to touch your face, sit on your hands.
Practice relaxation by focusing on long, slow, deep breaths and on relaxing muscles that feel tense. Sit in a quiet place and dwell on the present moment, not the past or future. Spend time in nature, but keep a safe distance from others.

“Many of us have taken a course in introductory psychology where we learned about conditioning and the laws of behaviour, and how we can establish and change behaviour,” Pomerantz said.

“We know that this works. And if people put these ideas into practice immediately, we’re going to see, we hope, some flattening of the curve much more quickly than otherwise,” he added.

READ | You’re wearing a face mask – are you wearing it correctly?

READ | What material is best for your DIY face mask? The answer may surprise you

READ | Do your keys, phone, money need disinfecting when you return home?

^{Image credit: iStock}

Dissolved oxygen and pH policy leave fisheries at risk

Posted on 23/04/2020 by Boris Clair

In a Policy Forum, “Dissolved oxygen and pH criteria leave fisheries at risk” published in the April 24 issue of the journal Science, Stony Brook University’s Dr. Christopher J. Gobler, Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation, and Stephen J. Tomasetti, Science Teaching and Research to Inform Decisions (STRIDE) fellow, consider accumulating scientific evidence on the harmful effects of coastal hypoxia (low oxygen) and acidification (decreasing pH, increasing acidity) in coastal ecosystems and suggest approaches that would address current policy shortfalls and facilitate improved protection of aquatic life.

During the past two decades, scientists have learned how hypoxia and acidification can act and interact to harm marine organisms. Hundreds of low oxygen or dead zones have been identified across the globe. Ocean acidification, a process resulting from the continued buildup of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide in the oceans, has been discovered. And yet, regulation of dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH in coastal waters have remained unchanged.

The Clean Water Act aims to restore and protect the waters of the United States from impairment; waters that do not meet state standards are listed as impaired, a designation that can initiate critical remediation actions. According to Dr. Gobler, the current saltwater DO and pH criteria of many states allow for harmful conditions to persist without amelioration. “Our understanding of the dynamics of DO and pH and the effects on marine life have advanced dramatically this century to the point that it is now clear that criteria for pH and DO are likely to leave important marine species vulnerable to harm,” he said.

The reduction of DO and pH in coastal waters can individually have adverse effects on aquatic life, however, current regulations do not consider the combined effects of these stressors which are often experienced in combination and can be more severe than each stressor individually. Not until the scientific field of Ocean Acidification had been established, had their combined effects been broadly considered.

Environmental experts working to protect marine life see the need for better protection of coastal ecosystems. “Together ocean acidification and eutrophication are a double whammy, reinforcing each other — and increasingly harming marine and aquatic life.,” said Dr. Lisa Suatoni, Deputy Director of the Oceans Division at the Natural Resources Defense Council. She went on to state, “Tomasetti and Gobler cogently present an emerging truth: to address this combined impact, we need to reexamine our current regulations and the criteria we use to assess water quality.”

The Policy Forum suggests that by incorporating recent acidification-research into DO and pH policy, further improvements to coastal ecosystems are achievable. Many coastal states have established advisory groups consisting of researchers, stakeholders, and state officials to share information on the issue of coastal acidification. “We believe that continued collaboration between scientists, community members, and all levels of government can revitalize our coastal waters,” said Tomasetti. “Revising DO and pH criteria to reflect the latest science are important actions that will leverage the existing nationwide efforts to improve water quality and will help to produce and maintain the best possible outcomes.”

This study concludes with recommendations to improve the protection of coastal animals, suggesting revisions of existing water quality criteria, further scientific experiments, and additional pH-monitoring.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Stony Brook University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Adult astrocytes are key to learning and memory

Posted on 23/04/2020 by Boris Clair

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine reveal that astrocytes, the most abundant cells in the brain, play a direct role in the regulation of neuronal circuits involved in learning and memory. The findings appear in the journal Neuron.

“It has become increasingly clear that astrocytes are much more than supportive cells in the healthy adult brain. They play a direct role in a wide variety of complex and essential functions, including neuronal communication through synapses and regulation of neural circuit functions,” said corresponding author Dr. Benjamin Deneen, professor of neurosurgery and a member of the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at Baylor. “In this study, we show a new role of astrocytes in normal brain function.”

Previous work showed that astrocytes comprise diverse populations with unique cellular, molecular and functional properties. They occupy distinct brain regions, indicating regional specialization. There is evidence suggesting that transcription factors — proteins involved in controlling gene expression — regulate astrocyte diversity. Deneen and his colleagues looked to get a better understanding of the role transcription factor NFIA, a known regulator of astrocyte development, played in adult mouse brain functions.

The researchers worked with a mouse model they had genetically engineered to lack the NFIA gene specifically in adult astrocytes in the entire brain. They analyzed several brain regions, looking for alterations in astrocyte morphology, physiology and gene expression signatures.

“We found that NFIA-deficient astrocytes presented defective shapes and altered functions,” said Deneen, who holds the Dr. Russell J. and Marian K. Blattner Chair and is a member of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor. “Surprisingly, although the NFIA gene was eliminated in all brain regions, only the astrocytes in the hippocampus were severely altered. Other regions, such as the cortex and the brain stem, were not affected.”

Astrocytes in the hippocampus also had less calcium activity — calcium is an indicator of astrocyte function — as well as a reduced ability to detect neurotransmitters released from neurons. NFIA-deficient astrocytes also were not as closely associated with neurons as normal astrocytes.

Importantly, all these morphological and functional alterations were linked to defects in the animals’ ability to learn and remember, providing the first evidence that astrocytes are to some extent controlling the neuronal circuits that mediate learning and memory.

“Astrocytes in the brain are physically close to and communicate with neurons. Neurons release molecules that astrocytes can detect and respond to,” Deneen said. “We propose that NFIA-deficient astrocytes are not able to ‘listen’ to neurons as well as normal astrocytes, and, therefore, they cannot respond appropriately by providing the support needed for efficient memory circuit function and neuronal transmission. Consequently, the circuit is disrupted, leading to impaired learning and memory.”

Story Source:

Materials provided by Baylor College of Medicine. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Hummingbirds show up when tropical trees fall down

Posted on 23/04/2020 by Boris Clair

When the tree fell that October in 2015, the tropical giant didn’t go down alone. Hundreds of neighboring trees went with it, opening a massive 2.5-acre gap in the Panamanian rainforest.

Treefalls happen all the time, but this one just happened to occur in the exact spot where a decades-long ecological study was in progress, giving University of Illinois researchers a rare look into tropical forest dynamics.

“I’ve been walking around that tree for 30 years now. It was just humongous,” says Jeff Brawn, Professor and Stuart L. and Nancy J. Levenick Chair in Sustainability in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at Illinois. “Here we are, running around on this plot for years and all of a sudden I couldn’t even find my way around. We just lucked into it.”

What’s lucky is that Brawn and his colleagues had amassed decades of data on the bird community in that exact spot, meaning they had a clear before-and-after view of what a treefall could mean for tropical birds.

This particular gap meant hummingbirds. Lots and lots of hummingbirds.

“After the treefall, we saw a very large spike in the total number of hummingbird species,” says Henry Pollock, a postdoctoral scholar working with Brawn and lead author on a study published in the Journal of Field Ornithology. “Within the previous 25 years of the study, we had only documented three or four hummingbird species, and they were usually present in low numbers. There was one species, the snowy-bellied hummingbird, which we had never captured on either of our two plots in 25 years of sampling. The year after the treefall happened, we got 16 unique individuals of this one species, and total diversity of hummingbirds more than doubled.”

The gap also attracted fruit-eating birds. The researchers documented a doubling of this group compared to pre-treefall numbers, with certain species being more than three times as abundant. Other species, including the thick-billed seed-finch, which typically inhabits grasslands, appeared as if out of thin air.

“They just swooped in,” Brawn says. “It’s analogous to a backyard bird feeder. As soon as you put one in, you’ll see species you’ve never seen before.”

And then, almost as quickly, the birds disappeared.

Within one to four years, depending on the species, the birds returned to pre-treefall numbers or were not detected again.

“What that suggests is these birds are incredibly mobile and opportunistic,” Pollock says. “They are probably just cruising around the landscape prospecting for their preferred food sources and habitats. Given the sheer size of this gap, it acted as a sort of magnet, pulling in species from potentially kilometers away. I mean, 16 snowy-bellied hummingbirds and we’ve never caught one before? It’s pretty astounding.”

Treefalls are a common and necessary occurrence in forests all over the world. As sunshine streams in from above, trees hunkered down in the understory finally get their chance to rise. Basking in the suddenly resource-rich environment, tropical trees and other plants produce nectar-filled flowers and fruit, important food sources for birds and other animals.

Previous research has hinted at how important these food sources are for tropical birds, but no one had documented before-and-after differences until now. Instead, researchers typically compared treefall gaps with intact forest areas at a single time point. That approach has its uses, but it can’t capture what Brawn and Pollock found: just how quickly the birds arrived on the scene, and how quickly they left.

“I was just really just astonished at how quickly and how efficiently these birds seem to be able to find and exploit a new source of food,” Brawn says.

Gaps don’t stay open long in the tropics. Understory trees shoot up, elbowing each other out of the way to take the top spot. Soon, there’s no evidence a gap — or its riotous array of feathered occupants — was there at all.

As short-lived as they may be, treefall gaps represent critical opportunities for species turnover, especially in the tropics where forest fires are comparatively rare.

“This kind of periodic disturbance is probably necessary for these birds to persist in the landscape matrix,” Pollock says. “That’s true for many organisms and ecosystems; our study provides evidence to back that up in these birds.”

Coronavirus: First patients injected in UK vaccine trial

Posted on 23/04/2020 by Boris Clair

The first two people have been injected as part of a UK study of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Coronavirus: ‘Limited supplies’ of kidney treatment kit

Posted on 23/04/2020 by Boris Clair

Hospitals are being asked to minimise use wherever possible after a recent surge in demand.

Practicing the Art of Change

Posted on 23/04/2020 by Boris Clair

Every month in Conscious Growth Club (which will open for new members April 27 to May 1), we host a group 30-day challenge. Members can choose which challenges they want to do, and we share updates as we go through each challenge together.

Some challenges are to improve our habits or to test new habits. Other challenges are more exploration-based. Some are just for the experience.

Each challenge allows for plenty of customization, so members can adapt any challenge to fit their situations. In May 2019, we did a daily exercise challenge, and members decided whether to walk, run, bike, do yoga, weight train, etc. In January we did a self-expression challenge, and members chose how and what they wanted to express each day; some did daily blogging, for instance.

Here are the themes of last 12 challenges we did, from May 2019 to April 2020:

Exercise
Overcoming procrastination
Building momentum
Mindfulness and gratitude
Explore a curiosity
Optimize your sleep habits
Shift your vibration
Declutter your space
Express yourself
Be a good friend
Fuel your body / strengthen your immune system
Structure your time

For each type of challenge, we provide some specific examples. Here are some examples we provided for the October 2019 “Optimize your sleep habits” challenge:

Get out of bed by a specific time each day
Get into bed by a specific time each day
Go 100% stimulant-free (no caffeine, chocolate, etc)
Keep your phone out of the bedroom for the whole month
Take a 20-min nap each day
Use a sleep mask for 30 days
Turn off WiFi at night
Sleep in a room with no active electronic devices
Get into bed by a certain time and read till sleepy
Avoid using anything with a display screen (TV, computer, phone) after a certain time each day
Test a 28-hour sleep-wake cycle
Keep a dream journal and log your dreams upon waking
Practice lucid dreaming each night
Sleep naked
Sleep without a pillow or with a different pillow
Fall asleep cuddling someone

I especially like the exploration-based challenges. For the September 2019 “Explore a curiosity” challenge, I decided to learn more about one city per day by loading it up into Google maps and diving into the street view feature. I picked different cities all over the world and imagined what it would be like to walk down the streets of each city. This made the world feel smaller somehow, and it made me want to travel more.

These challenges are… well, challenging. They help to build self-discipline and determination. Each one requires a small habit change for 30 days, so there’s a training effect when we do them. They strengthen our adaptability and flexibility as we practice incorporating small, positive changes into our lives.

We don’t map out 12 months of challenges for each CGC year in advance. I feel that would be too rigid. Instead we prefer to select each challenge on a month-by-month basis. We look at what’s arising in the community and develop a sense of where the momentum is and where the group energy wants to flow next. This has been working well. Many members find that the monthly challenges are nicely aligned with their personal goals.

Growing as a human being requires change, and change is difficult. These monthly challenges help us practice the art of change. At the start of each month, there’s a new invitation to change or improve some aspect of our lives for the next 30 days.

Members don’t do every single challenge. They selectively choose the ones that feel aligned to them. I don’t do every challenge either, but I do like engaging in many of them, especially for the training effect. I also like doing the challenges as a group, which can make some of them more energizing and fun.

The best challenges help me discover different modes of living that I like better than my defaults. They introduce me to new possibilities for my life and my character. And they’re also great for learning tips and ideas from other members who share their insights along the way.

Do you have a reliable method for practicing the art of change? How do you keep inviting freshness and newness into your life? How do you prevent your character from becoming rigid, crusty, and stale? How do you introduce positive habits to the structure of your life?

Health24.com | It looks like a classic heart attack, but in Covid-19 patients, other issues may be at play

Posted on 23/04/2020 by Boris Clair

Eighteen patients with severe Covid-19 treated at a New York City hospital showed the classic signs of a heart attack on their electrocardiograms.

But a closer look at each case revealed that more than half of these patients didn’t have a blockage in a major artery, the typical trigger of a heart attack. Thirteen of the 18 patients died of cardiac causes while in the hospital, said a team from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

These findings, published on 17 April in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggest that there’s something about the stress of severe Covid-19 that may be harming the heart in atypical ways, said one cardiologist who wasn’t involved in the report.

“As we continue to learn about the impact Covid-19 has on our heart, we have begun to identify unique and unusual effects,” said Dr Satjit Bhusri, a cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, also in New York City. “Some patients present with abnormal EKGs, which can classically look like an acute heart attack, but without a true finding of a blocked artery.”

‘Non-coronary myocardial injury’

The real underlying cause for some cardiac deaths in these patients may be the stress, physical and otherwise, caused by Covid-19, Bhusri theorised.

“This disparity is also seen in stress-induced heart disease, otherwise known as broken heart syndrome,” he noted.

The new report was led by Dr Sripal Bangalore, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health. His team looked at the cases of 18 patients admitted with Covid-19 whose EKG readings indicated they had experienced a heart attack.

The EKGs displayed a classic “elevated ST segment” reading that’s indicative of heart attack, the doctors said. Ten patients displayed ST elevation at the time they were admitted to hospital, while eight others showed it during their hospital stay.

However, based on coronary angiography scans and/or cath-lab investigations, 10 of the patients (56%) were found to have “non-coronary myocardial injury”, Bangalore said. In layman’s terms, that means a heart attack that was not caused by a blockage in an artery.

So, what might have caused the fatal or near-fatal heart injuries experienced by those 10 patients? It’s not clear, but Bangalore’s team said Covid-19 might injure the heart through a range of causes, including a rupturing of plaques in blood vessels, injury due to poor oxygenation, coronary spasm, tiny clots undetected by angiograms or more “direct” injury to vascular tissues.

A cytokine storm

“This case series highlights the complexity in caring for patients with Covid-19 who have EKG changes suggestive of a heart attack,” Bangalore noted.

That’s because using the standard heart treatment – clot-busting drugs – may sometimes be useless in these patients, as “half of them may not have major blockages,” he explained.

“Overall, the in-hospital death rate for these patients is very high and we urgently need studies to figure out how to best care for them,” Bangalore said.

Dr Guy Mintz directs cardiovascular health at the Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital in Manhasset, New York. Reading over the new report, he noted that the patients were “relatively young, with a median age of 63 years”. The group had traditional heart risk factors: Two-thirds had high blood pressure, one-third had diabetes and 40% had high cholesterol.

Mintz noted that similar findings were observed for Chinese Covid-19 patients who experienced heart crises during their care at hospitals in Wuhan, the original epicentre of the pandemic.

Besides the formation of dangerous clots, severe Covid-19 “also stimulates the inflammatory system causing a cytokine storm – an out-of-control inflammatory response to infection – which can lead to more organ damage, whether it’s the heart, lungs or kidneys,” Mintz explained.

READ | There may be a solution to the immune system ‘storm’ caused by Covid-19 in some patients

READ | Covid-19 can trigger serious heart injuries

READ | How does a severe coronavirus infection possibly injure the heart?

^{Image credit: iStock}

Health24.com | Coronavirus morning update: What could happen after lockdown, stayaway threat, and medical masks worries

Posted on 23/04/2020 by Boris Clair

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SA

Cases update:

The latest number of confirmed cases is 3 635.

According to the latest update, 65 have been recorded in the country.

So far, 133 774 tests have been conducted

Latest news:

As the government seeks to relax some of the rules governing the nationwide lockdown, access to sit-in restaurants, bars and sporting events would likely remain restricted, according to a leaked, draft discussion document prepared by the Presidency.

Confirming the validity of the draft document, Presidency spokesperson Khusela Diko said it was prepared as an early input into the development of a “risk-adjusted approach” to resuming economic activity.

She added it had changed substantially and would therefore caution anyone on relying on it for accurate information.

The risk-adjusted approach is being finalised and will be elaborated on by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday evening.

A trade union representing about 15 000 nurses at public and private health facilities, is threatening a mass stayaway from 1 May if the government doesn’t meet their long-standing demands.

The Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU), an affiliate of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), says it feels neglected by the government, having raised issues of a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), expensive transport and “poverty-level” salaries.

However, Department of Health spokesperson Popo Maja says if the union calls for a stayaway, it will be “a criminal offence in line with the Disaster Management Act” which the police can look into.

The union became particularly disgruntled following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on Tuesday night.

A race against the clock is under way to source vitally needed masks and other personal protection equipment (PPE) for health workers at the front line of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With South Africa able to only produce 10% of the medical-grade masks it needs, a dual strategy of sourcing stock abroad and ramping up local production is under way, according to Stavros Nicolau, who heads up Business Unity SA’s (BUSA) healthcare workgroup, GroundUp reports.

The healthcare workgroup is one of several that have been set up, with big business working alongside the government to prepare for Covid-19.

“This has been a big wake-up call and our response has been to engage with suppliers, both manufacturers and importers,” Nicolau told GroundUp in a telephone interview. The intention is to cut through red tape and help facilitate and speed up imports, while also ramping up local production.

“We have costed an eight-week supply at between R1.6 billion and R1.7 billion and after that, normal stocking can kick in,” says Nicolau. “But if there is a massive spike we are in the dwang.”

Handling procurement on a decentralised basis – as the South African government does – is a terrible idea during the Covid-19 pandemic, National Treasury says.

Usually, individual government institutions place their own orders for supplies such as personal protective equipment (PPE), which means even small municipalities are going to market looking to buy gloves and masks individually.

But the global crisis has crippled supply chains, complicated logistics, and caused countries to bid against one another for scarce protective supplies, Treasury says in an instruction to all public entities, so small orders are not getting priority in manufacturing and importation.

“More seriously, the small size of orders has crippled the process to place orders and procure products on the scale required to support mass testing and treatment initiatives, as recently pronounced by the President,” Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane writes in the instruction.

Labour and Employment Minister Thulas Nxesi told MPs on Wednesday that the Unemployment Insurance Fund had found instances where employers attempted to over-claim from its Covid-19 special cover, but that employees should not be made to suffer as a result during tough economic times.

Nxesi was addressing a joint meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour in the National Assembly and Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Small Business Development, Tourism, Employment and Labour in the National Council of Provinces.

The UIF buffers the impact of unemployment through contributions members make while they are gainfully employed. It introduced a special coronavirus fund which allows employers to pay out salaries during the April lockdown without loss.

The non-compliance underscores the tight balance the government must strike between enforcing compliance and ensuring penalties to not shut vulnerable businesses down and leave their employees without work.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE REST OF THE WORLD

Cases update:

For the latest global data, follow this interactive map from Johns Hopkins University & Medicine.

Late on Wednesday night, positive cases worldwide were more than 2.6 million, while deaths were more than 182 000.

The United States had the most cases in the world – close to 840 000, as well as the most deaths – more than 46 000,

Latest news:

US President Donald Trump vowed to sign on Wednesday an order partially blocking immigration to the United States, as health experts warned a second coronavirus wave could be even more destructive.

Trump said his action was being taken “to protect American workers” after 22 million people lost their jobs in the United States alone in the devastating economic backlash sparked by unprecedented measures taken to halt the spread of the virus.

And the United Nations warned that the world is facing a “a humanitarian catastrophe” with millions on the brink of starvation.

Nations around the world have been scrambling to fight the pandemic – which has killed almost 178 000 people and infected more than 2.5 million worldwide – while desperately seeking ways to limit the colossal damage inflicted on the global economy.

The UN General Assembly has demanded equal access for any future Covid-19 vaccine, but its seeming unanimity was a fluke. The United States in fact opposed the resolution but acted too late to stop it, diplomats say.

The 193 members of the General Assembly adopted by consensus on Monday a resolution led by Mexico that calls for “equitable, efficient and timely” access to any vaccine developed to fight the pandemic.

But the non-binding resolution irked the United States for another reason. It highlighted the “crucial leading role” of the World Health Organisation, which President Donald Trump has strongly criticised for not doing more to halt the virus after it was detected in China.

The adoption of the text was announced three hours after the vote, an unusually long gap.

LATEST RESEARCH

Earlier in April, Health24 reported on the immune system phenomenon, known as a cytokine storm, that Covid-19 seems to trigger in some people.

This overreactive response by the immune system damages the lungs and can cause death.

Even though cytokine storms have been investigated, many clinicians worldwide were not exactly sure how to treat it, especially because it was unknown earlier in the coronavirus outbreak.

But now, a team of researchers at MIT has developed specialised proteins, similar in structure to antibodies, that could potentially “soak up” excess cytokines, according to a news release.

“The idea is that they can be injected into the body and bind to the excessive cytokines as generated by the cytokine storm, removing the excessive cytokines and alleviating the symptoms from the infection,” says Rui Qing, an MIT research scientist and one of the study authors.

Regular exercise is crucial for optimum mental and physical health, but research has also shown that regular exercise could reduce the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which is a major Covid-19 complication.

A review from the University of Virginia School of Medicine “strongly supports” the possibility that exercise can prevent or reduce the severity of ARDS, which affects between 3% and 17% of all patients with Covid-19.

Based on his findings, published in the journal Redox Biology, he strongly suggests that people exercise regularly.

Right now, ARDS is proving to be one of the most serious complications of Covid-19. It is estimated that between 20% and 42% of people hospitalised with Covid-19 will develop ARDS, which is fatal for up to 45% of patients.

The role of good hand hygiene to reduce the burden of the number of infected people with the new coronavirus continues to be stressed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other health sectors, and a new study provides further insight into doing this right.

The study, published on 17 April and carried out by three researchers from the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, had four volunteers’ hands contaminated using a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria and is commonly used in genetic research – and is harmless to humans.

The volunteers did not wash their hands after contamination, but proceeded to dry their hands using either paper towels or a jet/air dryer.

“Paper towels should be the preferred way to dry hands after washing and so reduce the risk of virus contamination and spread,” the authors wrote.

HEALTH TIPS (as recommended by the NICD and WHO)

• Maintain physical distancing – stay at least one metre away from somebody who is coughing or sneezing

• Practise frequent hand-washing, especially after direct contact with ill people or their environment

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth, as your hands touch many surfaces and could potentially transfer the virus

• Practise respiratory hygiene – cover your mouth with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Remember to dispose the tissue immediately after use.

Health24.com | Do your keys, phone, money need disinfecting when you return home?

Posted on 23/04/2020 by Boris Clair

In the brave new world of Covid-19, home is your sanctuary, the one place you want to be sure is virus-free.

But if you have to head outdoors, what are the best practices for decontaminating your things when you return home? Does everything – smartphones, wallets, money and keys – need to be washed down with hot water and soap?

“We are all swimming through an invisible swamp of bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites,” noted Dr Stephen Berger, co-founder of the Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Network in Tel Aviv, Israel. “Those bookshelves and those pictures on the wall are teeming with ugly microbes. Not to mention your cellular phone, wristwatch, eyeglasses and everything else in your world.”

In fact, “the list of objects which could potentially be contaminated is endless,” he cautioned.

True culprit your own hands

But that does not mean that everything you take outdoors needs a biohazard scrub-down upon return, Berger added.

“The good news is that you are in no danger from most of this,” said Berger. “And you have no reason to compulsively avoid, or even clean, every object in your personal world. With one exception: your own hands!”

Why? Because when it comes to Covid-19 infection risk, “the true culprit here is your own hands,” he said.

Which is not to say that inanimate objects don’t pose any risk. They do, said Berger. And guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that people do clean their phones and electronics, either following the manufacturers’ guidelines or by using wipes or sprays containing at least 70% alcohol.

“The current Covid-19 pandemic is caused by a virus. That virus will infect you through your nose or mouth, in most cases because somebody coughed – or perhaps only breathed – within a few feet of you,” Berger said.

Money is ‘dirty’

“But perhaps that same somebody coughed into his hand, or toward a nearby object, or simply opened a door. Later that day, you shake that hand in greeting, touch that table or grasp that doorknob. And then, you use your own contaminated hand to eat a snack,” he explained.

The potential risk: that you then get infected, and “for the next week or two, this virus is multiplying in your system,” he added.

Money is a good example of the problem, Berger noted. “Few people realise that money is – as our mother told us many times – ‘dirty’. Several researchers have demonstrated an amazing variety of bacteria, parasites and other living things on paper bills.”

New research scheduled for presentation this month at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases speaks to that concern.

Though the investigation, led by Johannes Knobloch of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany, didn’t focus specifically on Covid-19, it did find evidence that European paper money – made of cotton fibre – is vulnerable to microbial contamination. (Coins, which are 75% copper in Europe, are less so.)

Soap and water also does the job

Still, “the solution here is not to throw your money away, or wash it in detergent,” Berger said. Nor does it mean spraying your keys down with Lysol. Instead, he suggested, the solution is “caution and hygiene”.

“In terms of the Covid pandemic, ‘caution’ involves strict attention to avoiding potential sources of disease,” said Berger, meaning wearing face masks and practicing physical distancing. “While ‘hygiene’ must include careful and repeated handwashing, antiseptics and chemical wipes are fine. But simple soap and water also does the job.”

READ | Scientists tested WHO-recommended disinfectants against the coronavirus – and they are effective

READ | Handle DIY cleaning products with care during coronavirus pandemic

READ | The most effective ways to kill coronavirus in your home

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Category Archives: Mind Building

Health24.com | Touching your face is a coronavirus danger: tips to help you stop

^{Image credit: iStock}

Dissolved oxygen and pH policy leave fisheries at risk

Adult astrocytes are key to learning and memory

Hummingbirds show up when tropical trees fall down

Coronavirus: First patients injected in UK vaccine trial

Coronavirus: ‘Limited supplies’ of kidney treatment kit

Practicing the Art of Change

Health24.com | It looks like a classic heart attack, but in Covid-19 patients, other issues may be at play

‘Non-coronary myocardial injury’

A cytokine storm

^{Image credit: iStock}

Health24.com | Coronavirus morning update: What could happen after lockdown, stayaway threat, and medical masks worries

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SA

Cases update:

Latest news:

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE REST OF THE WORLD

Cases update:

READ MORE | All the confirmed cases worldwide

Latest news:

LATEST RESEARCH

READ MORE: Coronavirus 101

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Health24.com | Do your keys, phone, money need disinfecting when you return home?

True culprit your own hands

Money is ‘dirty’

Soap and water also does the job

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