Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => COVID-19 => Topic started by: nudephil on 15/09/2020 18:04:33
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Here's a question from listener Richard:
I contracted pneumonia in March 2019 and was admitted to Chorley Hospital, Lancashire. I was 70 years of age at the time and I live alone.
My symptoms included a very dry cough (diagnosed as an upper respiratory infection) and a high temperature. After triage, I was transferred into an isolation ward. My treatment was an intense course of antibiotics.
I was interrogated by the consultant as to which countries I had recently visited and/or whether I had been in contact with any foreigners. No in both cases. I asked why the questions. Answer - the strain you have is not found in the UK. I did recover after 1 week.
Might the virus have have been an early version of COVID-19?
Can anyone help?
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If it was (successfully) treated with antibiotics, it wasn't a virus.
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Antibiotics certainly wouldn't treat the virus, but the principal problem with older coronavirus patients is often a secondary infection that can't be shaken off when the respiratory system is compromised in response to the virus.
"The strain you have is not found in the UK." deserves investigation: whatever Nicola Sturgeon's territorial ambitions may be, Chorley is still in the UK.
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Richard would need to contact his local gp's surgery and find out which bug was a strain not found in the UK.