The Parker Team would like to welcome Guest Blogger, Richard Graham, owner and pharmacist of The Dwight Market & Pharmacy.  Richard shares some valuable information regarding COVID-19 and what it may mean to us in Lake of Bays and Huntsville.

From Dwight Market Pharmacist Richard Graham:

The novel coronavirus recently named COVID-19 is all over the news these days and its emergence is creating a lot of concern.  The vast majority of the cases have occurred in mainland China but there is concern that the virus could grab a foothold here in Canada.  As of Feb 17 there were only 8 confirmed case of coronavirus in Canada.   If we compare the impact of COVID-19 to that of a typical flu season the coronavirus at this time is far less of a public health concern.   World wide the total number of confirmed coronaviruse cases is 75,305 and the death is toll is 2012 as of Feb 19th, comparatively in 2017-2018, a particularly bad flu season, there were an estimated 45 million cases of influenza and 61,000 deaths in the US according to the CDC. 

Looking at these numbers one might come to the opinion that all the news about the coronavirus is being over hyped but if we consider the fatality rate of the coronavirus to the flu the coronavirus at around 2% is much higher than the flu probably 10 times.    As well the COVID-19 virus has an 80% genome match to the SARS virus and though the SARS virus is more lethal it has proved to be  far less contagious.   

Symptoms of the coronavirus are similar to those of the flu; fever, cough shortness of breath that can sometimes lead to more serious symptoms such as pneumonia, kidney failure and acute respiratory syndrome.  The coronavirus is transmitted from  an infected person through water droplets from coughing or sneezing, prolonged personal contact such as hand shaking and through touching a contaminated surface then touching ones mouth, nose or eyes. 

So many of the precautions we take for avoiding the flu such as frequent hand washing, regular surface cleaning,  isolating infected individuals or people who have been in contact with infected individuals and wearing an N95 mask also work for prevention of the  coronavirus.  There is currently no vaccine developed at this time to prevent the coronavirus but there is the flu shot which is still the best means of protecting yourself from catching influenza. 

At present for us living in Canada the chances of catching the coronavirus would be considered rare but the full story of COVID-19 has not played out so we need to be prepared in the event the coronavirus becomes a worldwide pandemic. 

Richard Graham registered pharmacist/owner Dwight Market Pharmacy, Dwight, ON

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The Dwight Market & Pharmacy is located at:

2836 Highway 60, Lake of Bays.

705-635-2551

www.dwightmarketpharmacy.com