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Dr Semler Coronavirus Feb 17th 2020
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Jan 13, 2025
Dr Christoph Semler was good enough to spare us his valuable time earlier to discuss the Coronavirus outbreak and how we may be affected here in Spain/Europe. He appeared to be a little camera-shy and so we moved it halfway through.
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it's exactly half past ten mainland
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Spain half past nine in the UK and
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Canaries the time advertised as we put
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on our Facebook page and through
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Instagram as well for an extraordinary
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medical matters mid adopter semla who is
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in for as I say just a focus on
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coronavirus earn so welcome back has
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been a while have been a while indeed
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good morning okay fine yes can't blame
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my no no not we don't take you
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personally that we don't shake hands
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when you come in on reserves that's good
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practice right
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it is good practically if we're talking
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about the current is it called an
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epidemic a pandemic
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well it's a epidemic because broody
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hasn't caused a lot of trouble outside
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China hmm now this is a thing which
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should we be panicking or or not know
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that for the time being now with what we
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now today there is no need to panic for
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us here in Europe or outside China
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anyway things seem to be well under
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control the travelers are being screened
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so far virtually no in illness has been
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imported into Europe at all the pinna
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couple of cases endure in in Spain there
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are two people taken into hospital in
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Spain one on the Canary Islands
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one-on-one and Palma de Majorca I think
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on Eric Islands the one on the Canary
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Islands was found to be not a carrier of
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the illness the one on the balearic
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islands that are not probably not either
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I think it it was but they got over it
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most people get overrun yes of course
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the degree of getting the likelihood of
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getting seriously ill is very very very
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low probably lower than it is with the
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usual flu viruses we get every winter
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anyway it's not as deadly as the flu
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virus even it seems for the time at the
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moment assumably because you know what
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people are like they used to read it
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there and you feel it's there I mean if
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you had any people come to use mommy no
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but you know what particularly if you
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get to a certain age in dare I say the
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Brits as well they think slightest
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symptoms all that's definitely it I've
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got it
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no we haven't had anybody who thought
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they might have it and there's nobody I
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thought he might have it in fact there
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hasn't even been very much of the usual
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seasonal flu about it seems to be a
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fairly healthy winter for the time being
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there hasn't been any big outbreak of
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anything
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even the ordinary common flu at the
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moment here's something I wanted to ask
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you I'll get on to some of the basic
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principles you know avoiding infection
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just generally in a moment as a medical
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professional where do you get the
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information from so something comes to
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lights like the corona virus you
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obviously not getting it out of fur or
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Facebook in the light you getting from
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her info where does it come from the
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government the Department of Health both
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from a drift as the regional one in
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Valencia they have developed and
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published guidelines that guide doctors
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how to react in face of a patient you
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suspect might carry that particular
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illness they are well established well
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detailed guidelines what to do who to
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call where to send what measures to take
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so dr. Sandler is in from uro clinica in
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habia and as I say it could be to come
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in because we know you're a busy chap
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but just kind of putting people's mind
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at ease a little bit as far as
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coronavirus goes because you never know
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what to believe particularly these days
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when you got you your social media and
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people plucking things out of the air
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and also I mean there was concern about
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you know an initially the breakout of
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how much actual root proper information
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you get from Chinese well government and
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shiny state media there's the thing it's
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a different matter we don't know but we
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have to take at face value what comes
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from there there's no other way of
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getting more information but I think
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they're fairly decent about how they how
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they communicate with the rest of the
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world so just talking about a lot of it
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I've seen the World Health Organization
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the info they put out taking the basic
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steps it's probably good practice a lot
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of it anyway on a daily basis yes it's
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sensible it's a virus that lives in the
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Airways of the human body it likes our
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throats and it likes our lower Airways
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the bronchi and the lung tissue itself
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it gets spread through coughing and
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sneezing through anything that comes out
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of our nose or out of our mouth where it
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has been sitting at multiplying before
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if people sneeze or cough on their hands
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they will have the little droplets on
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their hands they don't wash their hands
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they don't wipe their hands they take
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hold of a door handle they touch the
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surface of a desk they hold the strap in
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the underground the virus will be there
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it's a new virus one doesn't really know
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too much about its abilities to live
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outside the
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body but it probably can live for at
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least half an hour at temperatures of 20
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degrees and not too dry an atmosphere
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outside the human body meaning somebody
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who carries the virus might not be aware
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of it
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coughs has got the droplets on their
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hands shakes your hands you've got the
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virus living on your hands for 20
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minutes what can you do not to get the
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infection you wash your hands you don't
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shake hands or you have a disinfectant
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with you to clean your hands that is
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true for all viruses that gets
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transmitted through the airways and
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droplets that come from coughing and
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sneezing what am what could the masks
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doing if anything of course they are a
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barrier people sneeze people coughing s
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we sneeze as we coughed be spread out
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droplets in a almost in a hemisphere
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around us and if you're next to somebody
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who coughs and sneezes you breathe it in
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with your next breath it's been shown
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that if you stay close to somebody
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within 2 meters distance for more than
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five minutes and the other person coughs
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and sneezes you're going to breathe it
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in and you can't avoid it the mask would
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certainly stop that it'll keep most of
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what the carrier would dissipate around
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them in the mask and what little can
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escape through the sides of the mask you
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stop from breathing in yourself by
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wearing your own mask it's a very very
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efficient way of stopping the spread of
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infection well they've been doing a
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roaring trade the sellers of first mass
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and all sold out in parts of China and
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elsewhere a very sensible measure to
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something yeah Oh anything else we need
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to mention hurt this stage really well
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at the moment there is no quarrel no
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virus in Spain and it is probably
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unlikely that we will see a bad outbreak
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here occurring how the the case you
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started a new case is starting to to
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fall a little bit in China yes well
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let's hope that is the beginning of a
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trend downwards I mean they have taken
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very very drastic measures of the
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Chinese authorities and let's hope they
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they take effect in that the spread is
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being contained and the number of newly
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infected people just drops that's the
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aim of of their measures to break the
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chain of passing on the illness of the
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chain of transmission
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that's why they put everybody in
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quarantine to not let them coffin on
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they're still healthy neighbors mm-hmm
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what was the quarantine period is it a
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couple of weeks it is two weeks though
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probably yes the quarantine period is
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two weeks the incubation period is
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between two and 11 days that means you
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catch the virus today from the third day
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onwards for another 11 days you carry it
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openly in your throat and in your
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Airways and are able to pass it on
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through coughing and sneezing but the
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the period for which you are infectious
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having been diagnosed is all the
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quarantine period is 14 days 2 weeks
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