Together with the international, federal, state, and local institutions in the country, we keep on working to protect the residents from the potentially dangerous health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are ready to consult you on the recent information about the most effective medicines and supplements helpful in case of being infected. Study the latest updates on our FAQs Coronavirus Disease page.
What are the main symptoms of COVID-19?
There are more or less common symptoms of COVID-19. The disease affects various people differently. The symptoms can be mild to moderate, and some cases don’t even require hospitalization.
The most common symptoms include:
- Fever;
- Cough and sore throat;
- Tiredness;
- Complete loss or changes in taste or smell.
The less common symptoms are:
- Disturbing pain in the throat;
- Headache;
- Aches and pains in the muscles;
- Problems with digestion and diarrhea;
- Skin rash or discoloration of toes or fingers;
- Irritated, itchy eyes.
The following symptoms are grave and demand urgent medical help:
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing;
- Loss of speech;
- Loss of mobility or confusion;
- Pain in the chest.
You or your family members need immediate medical help when experiencing serious symptoms. If you’re already planning to meet your doctor, obligatory call before visiting so that your medical practitioner could take preventive measures before the visit.
If a person experiences mild symptoms, there’s no need for hospitalization. Dealing with the mild symptoms at home is acceptable.
Usually, it takes up to six days for the symptoms of the virus to appear. If a person is healthy, the symptoms can develop in about two weeks.
What are the preventive measures against COVID-19?
The most effective way to prevent the illness is to stick to daily preventive actions. They are the following:
- Use water and plain soap to wash your hands and face regularly. You’ll need at least twenty seconds to make your hands clean after being in a public place or after sneezing, coughing, and blowing your nose. If there’s no soap and water available, use a hand sanitizer based on alcohol. It should contain at least 60 percent alcohol to be effective.
- Don’t forget to cover your mouth and nose with a non-surgical mask or a piece of cloth when you are in a public place with many people. Selecting and wearing a mask in the right way is also crucial. Google for the basic rules on how to wear a mask to protect the people around from the potential infection.
- Don’t be afraid of getting the COVID-19 vaccine when it is offered or when you have time. Once you get the vaccine, you obtain the possibility to get back to some activities that you couldn’t do because of the start of the pandemic.
- Stay away from large gatherings and don’t ignore social distancing. A mask can help you protect others from possible infection. Remember that you should regularly wear a mask, even if you are already vaccinated because you can still be a carrier of infection.
Should I always wear a mask when visiting public places?
When social distancing measures are hard to maintain, you have to wear a mask in a public place. Protective masks are obligatory on planes, buses, trains, and other types of public transport in the United States of America. Presence in the airports and other stations demands wearing a mask or any other facial cover.
According to the FDA recommendations, both face coverings and masks are acceptable as protection. The most effective protective equipment items are surgical masks and N95 respirators.
What are the most effective medicines for COVID-19?
The antiviral drug Veklury (also known as remdesivir) was approved for use in adults and pediatric patients at the end of October 2020. Younger patients should be over 12 and weigh no less than forty kilograms. This treatment requires hospitalization. Veklury is a very powerful medication that should only be used in hospitals under the guidance of experienced medical practitioners and their assistants. Any healthcare institution able to provide thorough care comparable to professional medical assistance in a hospital can use Veklury.
Unfortunately, Veklury is not a universal medication for all patients with COVID-19. It’s not suitable for pediatric patients under 40 kg of weight. Clinical tests proving the efficacy and safety of Veklury in pediatric patients are still being held.
Patients having COVID-19 should get supportive medical therapy for the relief of the symptoms. Patients with mild symptoms can deal with the recovery while being at home and don’t need hospitalization.
However, you can experience symptoms that can lead to threatening health conditions. Difficulty breathing is one of the most dangerous symptoms meaning that you need medical emergency help. Call 911 and say that you can be infected with COVID-19.
Never use someone’s prescription medicines to deal with the symptoms of COVID-19.
What is Ivermectin, and is it effective for COVID-19?
Ivermectin is a semisynthetic avermectin-type compound that is effective in the treatment of many types of parasitic infections.
It has been used as a drug to treat people and animals with nematode infections including onchocerciasis (river blindness), strongyloidiasis, ascariasis, trichuriasis, enterobiasis (pinworms), hookworm infection, cutaneous larva migrans, and echinococcosis. Ivermectin also has some activity against certain arthropod parasites such as scabies.
The thought that ivermectin can help in dealing with COVID-19 appeared in the middle of 2020. It started with the Australian researchers who managed to use this medicine in a laboratory setting and kill the virus. However, we cannot entirely rely on this finding. The researchers used a huge amount of the drug to kill the COVID-19 virus. This amount is unacceptable for people. The results of the use in humans can be fatal.
It was merely a lab-based test, where the medication and the virus interacted in a petri dish. No successful researches are proving that ivermectin will be as effective in humane bodies because of their complexity.
Why do we need to vaccinate?
To get rid of the pandemic, we have to make sure that the majority of people in the world are immune to the virus. The simplest way to reach this goal is to vaccinate. Humanity often relied on vaccines because this technology brought down the death toll connected with numerous infections.
After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers had to spend about a year developing an effective vaccine destined to protect people from SARS-CoV-2. Understand that this vaccine will not fully protect you from the disease, but it will help you cope with it easier and without consequences.
The only challenge now is to make sure the vaccines are available all over the world, both in developed and developing countries. Besides, people should understand that they are obliged to receive the required protection because it will slow down the spreading of this highly contagious disease.
Is the COVID-19 vaccine safe?
The injection has very few side effects. This allows Americans who want to prevent themselves from these viruses to have the opportunity to begin receiving the vaccination now.
The primary side effect of the vaccine is local pain at the site of injection or a mild fever, but there are no serious ones reported. Nausea, cough, headache, fatigue, and abdominal pain are some of the mild ones reported with the use of this vaccine.
What are the types of COVID-19 vaccines?
There are several types of vaccines available at present, destined to protect people from health risks connected with the coronavirus infection.
- Moderna;
- AstraZeneca;
- BioNTech;
- Janssen (it has already been tested and will be available very soon this year).
Can I choose the vaccine myself?
There are several cases when you do not have the right to choose the vaccine on your own. You’ll have to choose solely among the ones that are suitable for you and in line with your health indicators.
The majority of people can choose any of the COVID-19 vaccines. Nevertheless, certain people can only be vaccinated with certain injections. You cannot choose a vaccine:
- If you’re pregnant or less than forty years old. Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines will be offered in this case.
- If you’re under 18. Young people and children can only be vaccinated with Pfizer/BioNTech.
If you don’t have an allergic reaction or any serious side effects from the first component of the vaccine, you should use the same vaccine for the second dose.
What are the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine?
COVID-19 vaccine’s biggest drawback is that it causes nausea for up to 20% of patients. It’s most acute during the first couple of months after vaccination. However, it can also occur again later.
Another side-effect is muscle fatigue in up to 10% of patients. This effect is worse in the first days after vaccination and then it gradually fades. However, there are ways to mitigate this side-effect with insufficient exercise and proper nutrition before you receive the vaccine.
One more minor effect of the vaccine is serious skin rash (including sores and blisters on the skin). It is possible to become chronic with the rash increasing over time.
One final niggle with this vaccine is that it can cause an allergic reaction in 5% of cases, which will be more intense if the individual is already suffering from an allergy. It can also cause fainting.
Can children be vaccinated?
While it’s possible to vaccinate some children against COVID-19 with some success rates (the problem is that the virus is mutating so quickly that there are over 100 strains at present), most pediatricians will refuse to vaccinate children until they are 7 or 8 years old.
The vaccine has not yet been approved for use on people under 18 years old. It’s not yet known whether vaccinating children early would be better than waiting until they are older teens or adults.