It’s fair to say the emergence of Covid-19 taught us all a lot about viruses. From very early on, we’ve been taking extra care to keep our hands clean and a whole raft of infection control measures have since become second nature to us. One of the positives we can glean from the experience is our collective heightened awareness about looking after our own health and protecting that of others.
Medics hope the legacy the pandemic leaves us will be an enhanced understanding of how to avoid the spread of infection.
Effective measures
The greater awareness of hand hygiene is just one benefit highlighted by Dublin-based GP, and GP on the HSE national team for antimicrobial resistance and infection control (AMRIC), Dr Edel Doorley, who says she hopes this simple but effective measure stays with us.
“Regular hand hygiene is so important,” she says. “Many GP surgeries pre-pandemic would not have had hand sanitisation stations available for patients to use when entering the surgery but now they do – those kinds of things are much improved at the moment and surgeries would be keen to capitalise on this.”
Doorley says another aspect of this message is how viruses can be spread: "It's about educating the patient and the public that with any virus if they put their hand to their eye or their nose, they can spread infection, but if their hands are nice and clean, then that hand hygiene can prevent the spread of infection. It's a simple measure to follow."
She notes that many of her patients are turning up for their appointments with miniature bottles of alcohol gels attached to their handbags. “People are taking ownership of it and protecting themselves.”
People are now far more mindful, agrees Dr Paul Ryan, a Cork-based GP on the HSE AMRIC team. Social distancing was perhaps one of the most painful public health measures we had to endure, but the advice to isolate when you have symptoms of any infectious illness is a practice that he hopes will continue to be the norm. “It is good sense to limit our social interactions when ill with any infectious virus,” he says.
If you are sick, you really should be staying at home and taking yourself out of the work environment
“With many of us set up to work from home if required, the old mantra of pushing through it and still showing up to work is gone,” Ryan says. “Now we are more likely to work from home if we have symptoms of any virus, and take care not to spread the virus to other people.”
Doorley agrees. “It’s about the awareness that if you are sick, you really should be staying at home and taking yourself out of the work environment for your own protection but also for the protection of others. These are the things we need to promote coming out of Covid and going forward.”
Another positive outcome is the increased awareness that antibiotics don’t help when you have a viral illness. “People now realise that you can actually do harm by giving an antibiotic when it is not needed, while doing no good. They can have side effects such as rashes, tummy upsets, and abdominal pain,” explains Ryan.
“PCR testing has made inroads on that, as patients understood the need to wait for the result to come back, accept that it was a virus and that antibiotics aren't required in those instances. It’s really important that we continue to drive that message home,” adds Doorley.
The reality is that most everyday illnesses such as coughs, colds, earaches and sore throats can be managed at home by the patient themselves. “Conservative management such as rest, fluids, mild pain relief such as paracetamol is appropriate,” says Doorley.
Coughing is simply the body’s way of protecting your lungs, Ryan says. “Just because you have a cough it doesn’t mean you need an antibiotic - honey and lemon can be very effective. Some people find over the counter medication such as cough bottles can help, so contacting your pharmacist is always a good start.”
For us here in Ireland, wearing a mask was a brand new behaviour we had to get used to, but it has been commonplace in East Asia since the SARS outbreak of 2003. Will mask-wearing also be one of the legacies of Covid?
It’s too early to say what the future role of mask wearing might be, says Doorley.
It has become more socially acceptable to wear masks, says Ryan. “We know that mask wearing reduces the risk of transmitting a virus so people may feel more comfortable wearing a mask, or if someone else is wearing one too.”
One thing Covid has shown is how willing people are to protect themselves and others from common illnesses by actions like keeping hands clean, mask wearing, staying home with symptoms, social distancing and vaccination.
“We want people to keep doing those simple measures,” she says. “As GPs, our role is to protect the patient and be their advocate, and right now we are appreciating getting back to our day-to-day work and looking after all of our patients.”