RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Con­sul­tant in In­ter­nal Med­i­cine, En­docrinol­o­gy and Di­a­betes, Dr Joel Teelucks­ingh, is rais­ing con­cerns about in­creased res­pi­ra­to­ry and gas­troin­testi­nal ill­ness­es, in­clud­ing coughs, colds, flu, norovirus and po­ten­tial­ly, COVID-19.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Teelucks­ingh called on cit­i­zens to get test­ed once they fall ill and to stay away from an­tibi­otics, which he said does noth­ing to help.

He em­pha­sised that the lack of wide­spread test­ing makes it dif­fi­cult to pin­point the ex­act cause of the surge in the ill­ness­es.

“With min­i­mal test­ing be­ing done, it’s hard to know what’s caus­ing the wave of ill­ness­es,” Teelucks­ingh ex­plained.

He stressed, “If we don’t test, we don’t know.”

He warned that these ill­ness­es could spread quick­ly and have se­ri­ous con­se­quences, par­tic­u­lar­ly for vul­ner­a­ble groups.

“Old­er adults, peo­ple with un­der­ly­ing health con­di­tions like di­a­betes, hy­per­ten­sion, heart dis­ease, or kid­ney fail­ure, preg­nant women, and in­fants and young chil­dren are at greater risk,” he said.

To pro­tect against the spread of ill­ness, Teelucks­ingh urged the pub­lic to take pre­cau­tions.

“Wash your hands reg­u­lar­ly with soap and wa­ter or use hand sani­tis­er. Con­sid­er wear­ing a mask in crowd­ed in­door spaces. Avoid close con­tact with any­one who is sick, and cov­er your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze,” the doc­tor ad­vised.

He al­so stressed the im­por­tance of main­tain­ing a healthy im­mune sys­tem.

“Keep your im­mune sys­tem strong with ad­e­quate rest, hy­dra­tion, and a bal­anced di­et. For fever or body aches, parac­eta­mol is an ide­al treat­ment. Re­mem­ber, an­tibi­otics are not need­ed for virus­es,” he said.

Teelucks­ingh al­so urged in­di­vid­u­als to seek im­me­di­ate med­ical at­ten­tion if they ex­pe­ri­ence se­vere symp­toms.

“If you have dif­fi­cul­ty breath­ing, chest pain or tight­ness, a high fever that does not re­spond to med­ica­tion, or per­sis­tent vom­it­ing with signs of de­hy­dra­tion such as no uri­na­tion, dry mouth, or ex­treme fa­tigue, it’s crit­i­cal to seek med­ical care. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, wors­en­ing symp­toms de­spite rest and care should not be ig­nored,” he ad­vised.