B.C. physicians learned a lot during the H1N1 pandemic of 2009 and those lessons are helping keep frontline health care workers safe if the COVID-19 coronavirus becomes wide-spread.
Dr. Kathleen Ross, who practises in Coquitlam and is president of the Doctors of BC, said protocols such as wearing protective gear when taking swabs for respiratory illnesses and triaging patients are already being done for flu season.
And those practices will keep doctors, nurses, patients and health care workers safe for any contagious respiratory illnesses, including coronavirus, she said.
“We learned a lot from the H1N1 pandemic and the current response to the coronavirus is being built upon that framework. They are not new practices at all,” she told The Tri-City News.
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Read more about the coronavirus in Canada here
Canada should prepare for a global pandemic: Canadian health officials
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Here’s what would happen if you have an infectious respiratory illness:
• You should call ahead to your doctor and you will be be triaged, depending on your symptoms, with the most acute dealt with urgently. If you require an office visit and it’s possible to schedule it, you will be told to come at a time when there are fewer patients in the office.
• If you are coughing, you’ll be asked to wear a mask.
• If a health care worker needs to take a swab, they will be masked, gowned and wearing gloves and goggles for protection against droplets from coughing and sneezing that could pass on infection.
• As is typical in flu season, magazines, toys and other items would be removed from doctors' offices and things people touch will be disinfected.
Ross said she hasn’t seen any evidence that people are particularly alarmed by news the novel coronavirus has spread to several countries outside of China, including Canada, where seven cases have been identified in B.C.
But she said more swabs for respiratory illnesses have been taken by doctors across B.C.
To prevent infection, Ross recommends people take the same precautions they would during flu season.
“The message really is very clear: Make sure your wash your hands, avoid touching your face, stay home if sick, call ahead if you need to see your health care provider and cough into your sleeve and hand.”
Her message comes as a builder shut down a job site on the Burnaby/Coquitlam border because of concerns about coronavirus. Although there was no certainty a worker who presented with a fever Thursday was ill with the infection, the contractor, ITC Construction Group, said work at the City of Lougheed project at Austin Avenue and North Road in Burnaby was put on hold.
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