Coronavirus coverage appears to concentrate on new incidents and casualties but how many people did recover? And how do people recover from the virus?
Coronavirus affects our everyday lives, with recent enforcements suggesting that the nation has to stay at home and avoid unessential public spaces-how many people in Ghana have coronavirus? And how are they healing from this illness?
There are almost 3,000,000 cases of coronavirus worldwide, and more than 200,000 of these people have died. What you also don’t know is that 800,000 plus of the recorded cases have been rescued. A whopping 80 per cent of all closed cases are recoveries.
Over here in Ghana, a total of 1,279 cases have been recorded as on the 25th of April 2020 with 134 recoveries but a number of 10 people lost their lives to the illness.
There is currently no cure for the virus, but scientists are working to get one done and distribute quickly. For eight out of ten people- the virus is mild and flu-like.
Much like flu, sleeping, drinking plenty of water and taking paracetamol will help you recover. Most of them will not need hospital care and will recover in about a week without any help. However, if you think you have coronavirus, you must self-isolate for at least 14 days. According to the Ghana Health Service, there is no specific treatment. Most of the time, symptoms will go away on their own. Doctors can relieve symptoms by prescribing a pain or fever medication. A room humidifier or a hot shower can help with a sore throat or cough.
When their immune system overreacts to the virus, some people develop a more serious type of coronavirus. This causes inflammation of the lungs, better known as pneumonia. With pneumonia, tiny bags in the lungs begin to fill up with water, which leads to shortness of breath. Their bodies begin to fail and for this group death is a real possibility. The immune system begins spiralling out of control and that may cause septic shock. When your blood pressure drops so low that your organs stop functioning, that is septic shock and in this case a patient may die.
Can one be reinfected by Covid-19? According to world-renowned virologist Dr Ian Lipkin, there is no clear answer to this question at the moment.
Speaking exclusively with India Today, Lipkin suggested that while there is no confirmed data to prove coronavirus cannot reoccur in a recovered patient, scientists are working on the assumption that once you have contracted the virus, you will develop immunity for it post recovery.
When asked to comment on cases where recovered patients were exhibiting symptoms again, he said that there are two possibilities for such cases.
“There are two possibilities. One that people who were thought to have Covid-19 initially didn’t have it but got it for the first time when tested later. Another possibility is that they were subsequently found to be positive because they never really recovered,” Lipkin explained.
According to the virologist, such cases may be the result of errors in testing. “Different tests have different levels of capability. Every country needs to ensure that their tests are accurate and sampling is done properly. These are not fool proof tests,” he said.
Moreover, in April Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina officially launched a medicine he believes can prevent and cure patients suffering from COVID-19 even though World Health Organization says there’s no cure.
He said ‘’All trials and tests have been conducted and its effectiveness in reducing the elimination of symptoms has been proven for the treatment of patients with COVID-19 in Madagascar.’’ But science strongly States that there’s no cure for covid-19.  One can recover but that doesn’t mean the person can’t be infected again. WHO confirmed in a statement released on 24 April ..
.”There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from Covid-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection,” the organisation said. As much as those who have been infected with Covid-19 develop a protective antibody – but it isn’t clear how long the protection lasts but it can last long in some people.
The writer is a level 300 of GIJ
