Covid-19 Infection: Why Some Get It Worse Than Others
Dr. Maryam Phillips is a family practitioner practicing in Casselberry, FL. Dr. Phillips specializes in comprehensive health care for people of all ages. In addition to diagnosing and treating illnesses, family practitioners also put focus on preventative care with routine checkups, tests and personalized coaching on how... more
Have you wondered why some people get COVID and don’t need to be hospitalized, and some do? How do some people have it and don’t know? Covid-19 is a novel virus that’s actually pre-existed in a different form of SARS. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease caused by a SARS-associated coronavirus. It was first identified at the end of February 2003 during an outbreak that emerged in China and spread to four other countries.
SARS is an airborne virus that spreads from one person to the next through small droplets of saliva in a similar way to the cold and influenza. The case fatality among persons with illness meeting the current WHO case definition for probable and suspected cases of SARS is around 3%. So are you still wondering why some people get it bad and some do NOT?
We have seen there are two phases to Covid-19:
1 - Stage 1 is usually the infectious phase day 1-7 may prolong to day 10
2 - Stage 2 usually begins after day 7 we start to see the inflammatory reaction and “cytokines storm”
If someone can fight it off ideally by the immune system they never progress to stage 2. How can you boost your immune system? Several China studies show a natural remedy is best and perhaps an antiviral or antibiotic when needed. Natural remedies usually involve, lemon and ginger green teas and vitamin C, D, and E.
The high-risk population is more likely to progress to stage 2 due to a low immune system. The high-risk population is considered people with vascular disease, diabetes, asthma/COPD/sleep apnea/smoker, htn and obese.
At this time a lot of research is going into stage 2 and how to block the cytokines storm and progression to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Some studies have shown Lenzilumab to be promising at Mayo Clinic and Baptist Memorial and Advent Health. This stage 3 trial showed an 80% reduction in relative risk of invasive mechanical ventilation and/or death in patients treated with lenzilumab compared to the control group.
The median time to resolution of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) reduced to one day for patients treated with lenzilumab versus eight days in the control group. All together results and research is promising. We need to work together and work with our scientists who are putting out great work in identifying the opportunities to win the fight against COVID.
For any questions or primary care concerns visit our website www.drphillipsmwc.com.
