Ge­neti­cist and biotech­nol­o­gist Dr Nicole Ram­lachan is warn­ing Car­ni­val pa­trons to avoid con­tract­ing virus­es when at­tend­ing fetes and oth­er events.

Dr Ram­lachan says this Car­ni­val sea­son, many peo­ple will be ex­posed to new dis­ease vari­ants and vis­i­tors un­know­ing­ly car­ry­ing virus­es.

She is urg­ing every­one to take pre­cau­tions to pre­vent dis­ease spread, as much as pos­si­ble.

“We’re see­ing quite a few cas­es of sep­ti­caemia, and vi­ral and lung in­fec­tions, float­ing around the place,” she told Guardian Me­dia.

She en­cour­ages peo­ple who are im­muno-com­pro­mised to take every pre­cau­tion.

“Wear your mask, wear your mask, wear your mask,” she ad­mon­ish­es. “Wash your hands with soap and wa­ter, which can kill most virus­es. Try to main­tain so­cial dis­tanc­ing as much as you can. If you’re in a par­ty or in a fete and you can't, take pre­cau­tions when you get home.”

Dr Ram­lachan rec­om­mends build­ing up your im­mu­ni­ty, and al­so treat­ing and min­imis­ing nasal in­fec­tions us­ing saline sprays.

And what if you are feel­ing un­well? The doc­tor's or­ders are to stay away from work or school. Stay at home. And most im­por­tant­ly, make sure you get test­ed.

Dr Ram­lachan al­so is con­cerned about resur­gence of measles, and stressed the im­por­tance of get­ting vac­ci­nat­ed.

“Measles is one of the most con­ta­gious dis­eases known to man. One per­son can in­fect 18 oth­er peo­ple,” she points out.

“It goes through some­thing called ‘lym­pho­cyte de­ple­tion’, which can ac­tu­al­ly af­fect your abil­i­ty to fight oth­er dis­eases and virus­es and sup­press your im­mune sys­tem,” she said.

Dr Ram­lachan notes there is a high mor­tal­i­ty rate in in­fants who con­tract measles.

She strong­ly ad­vis­es par­ents to stick to their chil­dren’s vac­ci­na­tion sched­ule for the dis­ease, as it gives them 99 per­cent im­mu­ni­ty.