Hey Healthy Life Achievers, you are once more welcome to your amazing website and today we shall be looking at some ways we can prevent our most recent and scary pandemic the covid-19. Like we said in our previous article, treatment of covid-19 is mainly based on supportive care and since the WHO and CDC haven’t declared any cure for this deadly pandemic, we shall focus more on hygiene. You may wish to visit our previous article on the basics of hygiene.

The hygienic aspects as far as this pandemic is concerned shall be dealt in two phases: How to protect yourself to avoid contamination with the disease and ways to protect others if you are a victim of this virus.

How to protect yourself:

1) Wash your hands.

One way to protect yourself is to wash your hands. Wash your hands often with soap and water or use a 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer in the absence of soaps.

Like oil, grease, and dirt, so do the lipid bilayer envelope of most viruses as well as that of COVID-19 virus easily embedded by the long hydrophobic (water repellant but fats loving) hydrocarbon chain of soaps. Properly washing your hands with soap and water as you agitate the water clears off viruses from the surfaces of your hands.

Moreover, secure a well disinfected white piece of cloth or towel to properly dry clean your hands after washing. These prevent you from using the cloths you wear to wipe your hands after washing, thereby inhibiting re contamination if those cloths possess infected droplets.

2) Social distancing.

Like the WHO and CDC, Your Healthy Life (YHL) advises you to apply social distancing when you find yourself with other people, in a crowd or in gatherings. It is recommended to keep a distance of 6 feet (say 2meters) from each individual.

This is because droplets containing the virus are known to travel short distances below the given range from person to person. You may breathe in the droplets of the cough or sneezes from an infected person closer to you.

Social distancing also warrants you to avoid hugging, shaking hands with another person as these activities bring people so close to each other.

3) Steer clear from your T-zone area.

Your T-zone area consists of your eyes, nose, and mouth. It is highly advisable you avoid touching this area since it serves a potent route for the passage of these viruses into your body.

When your hands come in contact with infected surfaces or individuals, they become contaminated and as you touch your T-zone area, you expose these viruses to your mucus membrane which later inhabit the cytoplasm to make more copies of themselves before heading to the lungs to execute their deadly mission.

4) Wear a face mask.

The N95 mask prevents 95% of germs and other dirt particles from getting in through the mouth and it is recommended to put them on alongside your gloves when caring for people infected by the virus. Otherwise, you may avoid putting on a mask if you are healthy.

5) Clean and disinfect high touch surfaces.

High touched surfaces are those that are most frequently in contact with our hands and include keyboards, phones, mouse, doorknobs, handles, light switches, tables, desks, etc. These surfaces are requested to be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected to remove and kill germs respectively.

It is worth nothing that cleaning does not kill germs but reduces their numbers. Using soaps or detergents and water may properly keep these surfaces clean. A dry soft piece of cloth can be used to clean screens and electronic devices like phones and keyboards.

Disinfecting using chemicals serves the purpose to kill germs on these surfaces. However, it doesn’t keep dirty surfaces clean.

Thus cleaning and disinfecting go a long way to reduce the number of these viruses on surfaces of objects. Some common disinfectants recommended by CDC and YHL include EPA-registered household disinfectants, household bleached solutions, 70% alcoholic solutions. Also, expect some details of these disinfectants in our upcoming review.

6) Self-quarantine.

This implies abstaining from contact with other individuals for a period of about 14 days usually during an outbreak of disease by staying indoors. Self-quarantine is one of the most effective ways of reducing the spreadability (Ro) of this pandemic as clearly demonstrated by China who used to have massive fatal cases but not anymore.

As a healthy individual, self-quarantine limits your exposure to infected individuals as well as super spreaders out there. You should also limit your traveling rate to avoid yourself from exposure. This is also highly recommended for folks who are immunosuppressed and highly prone to this viral infection.

How to protect others when you are sick.

You are advised to apply the following procedures if you find yourself infected by this virus or caught with fever (38°C), cough and shortage of breath:

1) Self-quarantine.

Stay at home and you may however only go out to seek medical attention. And before going to the hospital you are required to call your physician in advance so that you don’t surprisingly get others infected.

Avoid going to work, school or anywhere there is a group of people. Moreover, stay away from public transport, ride-sharing or taxis.

This is because infected droplets can be transmitted from you to healthy persons around you as you cough or sneeze thereby increasing its spreadability.

2) Stay away from others while at home.

Individuals who are carrying the virus are requested to stay away from family members and other neighborhoods while at home. These careers are advised to stay in a different well-ventilated room with doors usually closed to avoid the spread of droplets to nearby and passerby people.

Infected people should also use a separate bathroom. In case there is a single bathroom, that bathroom should be properly cleaned and disinfected at all times before and after usage.

3) Stay away from pets:

Don’t allow pets or other animals to come close to you if you are sick.

This is because these animals may transmit this virus to healthy individuals who may later touch them, use their contaminated hands to touch their T-zone areas thereby getting infected.

However, if you wish to take care of your pets, wear a medical mask, wash your hands properly before touching them. Better still, you may employ someone to do so.

4) Wear a face mask.

Patients are recommended to put on a medical mask while around some individuals.

This mask serves to keep droplets within when the patient coughs or sneezes hence preventing contaminated droplets from spilling upon the face of healthy people.

Those caring for patients should also wear an N95 mask to prevent themselves from these droplets.

5) Avoid touching high touched surfaces.

Patients or careers of this deadly virus are requested to stay away from objects our hands are frequently in contact with, particularly our phones and doorknobs. Droplets may fall on these surfaces or objects carrying viral particles which may later contaminate healthy people in the nearby future thus increasing spreadability.

6) Use a tissue or your elbow.

For those who are sick, the WHO, CDC, and YHL recommend you use a clean tissue to cover your nose and mouth during sneezing and coughing to protect contaminated droplets from splashing away as this prevents healthy people around. These used tissues should immediately be disposed of.

You may use your elbow to cover your nose and mouth during this activity. Also, clean your hands properly with soap and water to eradicate the virus on your hands’ surfaces.

There are many ways we can implement to reduce the spread of covid-19, however, implementing the above-mentioned ways will go a long way to decline the spreadability and hence the case fatality rate of this deadly virus. For it is part of our mission to make sure our entire community and the globe at large now have the most current knowledge on cases that may pose detrimental effects, like this recent pandemic, on our healthy life.

Haven read our works and this article we recommend you keep your opinion, suggestions, and ideas about our company and this article in the comment box below. Thanks.

Akon.