How To Prevent A Covid-19 Co-Infection? Dr. Sunil Choudhary Explains

While India is still recovering from the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the monsoon season also brings a rise in diseases like malaria, dengue and more. Read on to find out how you can prevent a co-infection of Covid-19 and other common monsoon diseases.   

What You Should Know:

• How do Covid-19 co-infections affect your body?
• Which seasonal diseases can you contract with Covid-19?
• Steps to prevent Covid-19 co-infection

How do Covid-19 co-infections affect your body?

A Covid-19 co-infection can pose a problem when it comes to correctly diagnosing and treating the illness. For example, some of the early symptoms of Covid-19 like headaches and weakness are common with monsoon diseases. This can make an early diagnosis of Covid-19 difficult. 

Having another disease can also affect your Covid-19 treatment. It can negatively affect the way your respond to the treatment and delay your recovery. 

Which seasonal diseases can you contract with Covid-19?

There is always the possibility of contracting another disease even if you have already contracted Covid-19. To top this, many of the monsoon illnesses are epidemic-prone like malaria and dengue or viral infections like seasonal flu. Here are some of the common monsoon illnesses that could lead to a Covid-19 co-infection:

• Mosquito-borne diseases (dengue, malaria, and chikungunya)
• Seasonal flu
• Leptospirosis
• Bacterial infection

Since monsoon diseases like dengue and malaria can lead to an epidemic it could also create another major health concern for the healthcare system. 

Steps to prevent Covid-19 co-infection 

The healthcare system has already been stretched due to Covid-19. Therefore, it is important for you to take responsibility and follow certain health precautions: 

• Follow Covid-appropriate behaviour: 

You know the protocol and have heard it many times now;

• Stay at home as much as possible
• Wear a mask 
• Sanitise your hands after touching any surface, 
• Maintain social distancing

These are vital preventive measures. These can not only help you avoid a Covid-19 infection but other viral monsoon infections like the seasonal flu or bacterial infections. 

• Follow guidelines to prevent dengue and malaria: 

To prevent these mosquito-borne diseases, you need to take steps to prevent the breeding of mosquitos and keep away mosquitoes This includes: 

• Preventing accumulation of freshwater in open areas.
• Use mosquito repellent 
• Wearing full sleeve clothes covering your arms and legs.
• Put up a mosquito screen on your windows, and doors if needed.
• Use a mosquito net around your bed if you are sleeping in open areas

Try to ensure that there are no breeding grounds for mosquitos that can spread dengue and malaria in your area.

• Get Vaccinated

Apart from the Covid-19 vaccine, you should also consider taking seasonal vaccinations to prevent specific diseases. You can take the Pneumococcal vaccine for pneumonia prevention and Flu vaccination to prevent flu infections. You can also avail the vaccine for typhoid prevention and if you have infants, then consult your paediatrician for Rotavac vaccination to prevent diarrhoea.   

• Maintain Personal Hygiene

Try and include more home-cooked food in your diet. Even if you do decide to eat outside food, choose options that you trust and follow safety protocols while preparing your food. Avoid drinking contaminated water by drinking only boiled or filtered water. This can help you void bacterial infections that spread through food or water.

Here’s another blog by Dr. Sunil Choudhary on why you need to improve your blood platelet count in the monsoon and how you can do it naturally. For more fitness or nutrition-related advice, visit the Activ Living Blog.