Faizel Patel – 10/06/2020
Pic: KWQC
With the dramatic rise in confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections in the country, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) says the wearing of face masks are important to curb the spread of the virus.
Recently there has been a dramatic rise in fake news claiming certain illnesses are linked to the pandemic.
The latest is that the wearing of masks can cause hypercapnia and lead to viruses travelling into the brain.
Hypercapnia occurs when there is too much carbon dioxide in the bloodstream. Mild cases can lead to issues such as headache and anxiety; severe cases can interfere with breathing.
South Africa now has more than fifty two thousand confirmed infections while more than one thousand one hundred people have died after contracting the virus.
The NICD’s Professor Lucille Blumberg says there is value in wearing a mask to keep people safe.
“If you look at the way COVID-19 is transmitted, it is transmitted when people cough or speak or sing or shout and they expel these droplets and the droplets contain the virus. If you are wearing a cloth mask and you are infected, you have people with minimal symptoms who aren’t always aware it will reduce to the number of droplets reaching anybody else.”
Blumberg says wearing the facemask is just the first step in staying safe against COVID.
She says social distancing is also extremely important.
“Somebody in your area is infected in that space and you wearing a cloth mask, it doesn’t offer you 100% protection. It stops the droplets from the infected person going out. Social distancing is incredibly important. I know at social gatherings it’s really quite difficult, but it’s critical to observe all protective interventions.”
Blumberg says masks also stops people from touching their nose and mouth with their hands which may have been in contact with a COVID-19 contaminated surface.
Listen to the interview with Professor Lucille Blumberg.
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