Whelehans Health News

What does Self-Isolating and Restricted movement involve? Self-Isolating Self-isolating is like cocooning except it is a protective method for others around you as opposed to a self-protection method. Self-isolating is defined as staying at home and away from everyone around you. It is essential to self-isolate if you have tested positive for covid-19, while you wait for your results, if you have symptoms and before you get tested. Symptoms can be mild for many but you can still spread it to others who might not be so fortunate. If you have symptoms people around you will need to have restricted...

Continuing to protect ourselves from Covid-19 Social distancing and regular handwashing are the two most important ways to protect from Covid-19. Social Distancing Everyone should practice social distancing. We must ideally keep distance of 2 metres from others. We release droplets as we breathe and talk and even more as we cough and sneeze. Hence social distancing is essential. Other ways of practicing social distancing is staying away from crowded areas, communal sleeping areas and not shaking hands. Risk is low for just passing someone, but risk increases as contact time with another person increase. As many of us return...

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Myth busters   This week I bust some myths around coronavirus.   Are hand dryers effective in killing the new coronavirus? No. Hand dryers are not effective in killing the 2019-nCoV. To protect yourself, frequently wash them with soap and water or with an alcohol-based hand rub.   How effective are thermal scanners in detecting people infected with the new coronavirus? It takes between 2 and 10 days before people who are infected with coronavirus to become sick and develop a fever, so thermal scanners cannot detect people who are infected but are not yet sick with...

Slowing down skin aging   Protect your skin from the sun Sunlight contains ultraviolet (UV) rays are the main cause of skin ageing and skin cancer. Sunburn massively increases the risk of skin cancer, so protect your skin against sun damage at any age, but take special care with babies, children and young people. To reduce aging and damage from the sun: spend time in the shade between 11am and 3pm cover up with clothes, a hat and sunglasses use sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 30 It is good however to spend some time in sunlight,...

Coronavirus Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new respiratory illness. This strain has not previously been seen in humans and first presented in the Wuhan region of China in December 2019. The advice below is based on the HSE’s guidance and is correct at the time of writing (14/02/20).   Risk of catching coronavirus As I write this article (February 14th), there have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Ireland. The risk of getting coronavirus in Ireland is low. If there is a case here, health authorities will try to contact anyone who has been in contact with the infected person....