DR PANOS - THE MASK IS OUR ONLY WEAPON AND ACTS AS A BRAKE

 Filenews 28 August 2020 

The coronavirus can infect someone who has influenza and the two diseases coexist, however, what is not yet known is whether influenza worsens infection by Covid 19, Professor of Pathology at the Medical School of the University of Cyprus and Associate Professor of Pathology and Infectious Diseases of the Medical School of the University of Patras, Dr. George Panos, who stresses that the mask is the only weapon we have and acts as a brake on the spread of the virus.

Dr. Panou, who is also a member of the Scientific Group of the Ministry of Health, expresses his strong disagreement with the Government's decision not to use the mask by children under 12 years of age at school and stresses that in Cyprus the strict application of self-protection measures (mask, distance, antisepsis and avoidance of crowding and crowding) should continue, in order to reduce the likelihood of influenza infection. , in view of the upcoming winter, but also the possibility of a person getting other viruses, such as respiratory syncytogenic virus (RSV), which every year, around October and November, causes mild colds in people of all ages.

It stresses that in Cyprus, because of its population, there is no luxury of losing a single person, noting that checks must be continuous so that the population "is as clean as possible".

Alternative Therapies - Favipiravir Market

According to Professor George Panos there are alternative treatments, which could be used in cases where someone is simultaneously sick with COVID 19 and Influenza, however, he noted that "this does not mean that we should stop self-protection measures".

He said that in Cyprus the state has bought this year a quantity of the active substance Favipiravir, which he had proposed himself as a member of the Scientific Group of the Ministry of Health.

He explained that this drug is already licensed in Japan and China and can treat both Influenza and COVID 19 at the same time.

"It has been bought by the state through its own procedures and there is also literature from a large study in Russia where they used Favipiravir and had good results from mild to moderate COVID infections," he said.

Asked to assess whether the opening of schools would increase cases, Dr . Panou replied that the more the population is controlled and is clean, possibly the cases that may occur during the school year, can be controlled.

"The bottom line is when schools start there should be a healthy environment, with as little chance as possible of a positive case, so that they don't stick to each other," he said.

"Third world or European and advanced country Cyprus?"

In response to a question about where the members of the Scientific Group were based in order to make the decision not to use the mask by children under the age of 12, Mr Panou said they had relied on the guidelines of the World Health Organisation, expressing his complete disagreement.

As he said what should be pursued is "no case in our schools", to then ask why the children of Cyprus should not learn to wear their mask?".

"Children all over Europe can learn to wear their mask, ours can't? Do our children have special needs? They're complaining, and because they're complaining, we have to do the combination. We find an opportunity and we agree with the WHO so as not to upset those who react," he said specifically.

He went on to say that "there must be logic within our science", noting that Cyprus must decide whether it is a European advanced country or a third world country.

Cyprus is going through a second wave

Asked if the virus attack in the coming winter in Cyprus would be worse than the previous one, Professor George Panou expressed the belief that Cyprus is currently going through a second wave, which he added "is clearly smaller than the first.

He even said that "while it is starting to bend there is a delay in dealing with it."

He also explained that "if one sees all pandemics and epidemics there are second, third and fourth waves, which are not clear in order, whether they will be worse in the next period or milder", to note that we will have to check a lot more people, much faster, to track much faster and certainly those who return from their holidays to be checked once before going to work and once in one between 5 and 14 days after returning.

"Most people will have to work the first two weeks from home to make sure that when they get back to work there will be no problem transmitting the virus," he said.

The "tank" method

In addition, it recommends increasing controls at airports, ports and barricades using the Pool PCR testing method, which can also be applied to schools in the new years.

This is the method of the so-called 'tank', for which he explained that 'instead of looking at each one individually, many will be examined together and if within this number of tests a positive incident is found, then they will all be checked separately'.

"We can control with the pooling test method, which means we control with a tank many together. If we check a tank of 50 people and it's negative it means that all 50 are negative. This gives us an opportunity to map the population. The children who will return to school and their teachers could be controlled in this way," said Dr . Panos.

In response to a question whether, in the event that during the winter Flu and COVID 19 peak at the same time and what should be expected, Dr. Panos said that "those who have symptoms should be monitored by a doctor", noting that "doctors who know their work can distinguish the symptoms that characterize COVID and those that characterize influenza or a common cold.

"In the most severe cases," he said, "molecular testing should be required and essentially the person with the specific symptoms should go through the simultaneous process of molecular control for COVID, but also of other viruses, especially Influenza."

Source: KYPE