USE OF A VENTILATOR

The National 30 March 2020 P.29

People wear a mask to connect with a ventilator that helps prevent the collapse of alveoli lung air sacs. 

This enables the passage of oxygen and carbon dioxide. The lung is incapacitated with severe coronavirus. The oxygen can not be absorbed. Carbon dioxide can not pass out and clogs the blood.

Pneumonia is brought on by coronavirus that inflames the lung membranes and fills the sacs with liquid.

In the worst cases, the patients have to be hooked up to ventilators in intensive care units. At an earlier stage the respirator is used.

COVID-19 can be a mild infection. But it will turn fatal with pneumonia and pre-existing illnesses such as tuberculosis, diabetes 2, high blood pressure, strokes, kidney disease, HIV/AIDS and asthma.

INFECTION BY CARD GAMES

The PNG Government and police are asked to take action on the widespread practice in suburbs and villages of primitive stupid citizens playing cards and gambling for money.

They sit in a circle ignoring social distancing and distributing playing cards and money. 

If any player has coronavirus, the infection will pass to all players through droplets, coughing and the virus on cards and money. Card playing can be a key vector for transmission of the virus.

I have spoken to several card games but my words were ignored. Last night the Waigani police raided a card game at G block in Waigani. Players disappeared in all directions.

SPANISH FLU PANDEMIC 1918

There was a fearful report on Smithsonian Channel on the flu pandemic of 1918 that killed over 100 million people in America, Europe, Asia and Australia. It started in Kansas in USA with a young man infected. 

He soon passed the flu to all his friends and a pandemic was on its way. People died within 24 hours of infection with (1) vomiting (2) diarrhoea (3) bleeding from eyes, nose, ears and mouth (4) stomach pains (4) brain damage (5) pneumonia  and (6) stroke.

It was not a pandemic from Spain but the Spanish were not in the war and willing to report on the disaster unlike US doctors who were arrested by police for damaging the war effort. That may explain why the pandemic was given the tag "Spanish". Never blame an allied nation.

There were none of the responses of the modern Governments. The US government was more interested in sending infected soldiers to fight the war against the Germans who soon became infected too.

People died in thousands and were buried in unmarked mass graves. There were none of the steps taken by Governments today such as (1) financial support (2) effort to stave off recession (3) social distancing of citizens (3) medical treatment and (4) staying at home.

At the end of the war, thousands gathered to celebrate and went home with Spanish flu. The US Government applied censorship to the pandemic. Doctors were arrested.

President Woodrow Wilson became infected and died of a stroke and high blood pressure soon after the war ended. 

But not before he hit the Germans with draconian reparations for the war. Perhaps Spanish flu was the pre-existing infection.

The TV report stated that he was mentally unbalanced in his last year as president and dominated the proceedings at the Treaty of Versailles.

The report stated that most infections were focused in the US industrial towns that produced steel for World War 1.

The virus just disappeared leaving the people of the world scarred by war and pandemic. Let us hope the coronavirus pandemic just disappears too.

VENTILATORS AND RESPIRATORY INFECTION

For the want of a nail, a shoe was lost. For the want of a shoe, a horse was lost. For the want of a horse, a soldier was lost. For the want of a soldier, a war was lost. For the want of ventilators, loved-ones were lost.

We hear on the news that the world has a shortage of ventilators that may be contributing to the deaths of coronavirus victims. 

I assume that ventilators help people with respiratory failure by forcing air and oxygen into their lungs.

We can all suffer from lung failure with intra-pulmonary tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and coronavirus. All can cause a build up of mucus in the lungs that blocks passage of oxygen and carbon dioxide, weakens the immune system and causes pneumonia, tissue and organ failure. 

All can end in death. All can produce mucus in the nose and constant cough. Tuberculosis and coronavirus have the virus travelling in the mucus and infect other people directly through droplets or external contamination. Tuberculosis can be caused through betel nut spitting.

Several years ago I suffered from intra-pulmonary tuberculosis. I could not breathe and feared that I was going to die of suffocation. The infection was in my lungs.

I took an electric  fan, opened my mouth and let the fan push air into my lungs. I could breathe !!  My neighbour drove me to the hospital and I sat with my head out the passenger window and my mouth open.

Surely we can find a replacement for a ventilator in the short term. This is only a stop gap method until proper hospital equipment is available. Many people are dying with no access. 

There are reports that there are not enough ventilators in US hospitals. Doctors are forced to choose who lives and who dies. Perhaps a portable air conditioner or hair dryer may do the trick. A little creative initiative is called for here.

There was a report in the Post Courier 26 March P.28 of an Italian priest given a respirator by parishioners who gave it to a young boy in the next bed. 

The priest then died !! Greater love hath no man than he laid down his life for a stranger. Parishioners cheered his coffin as it went past their balconies.

HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis can be deadly pre-existing infections. Those living with HIV and taking ART medication need to consult a doctor on whether or not they are still vulnerable. So too with those on tuberculosis medication.

CORONAVIRUS AND ATHLETES

Out of this pandemic may come an awareness of the need for healthy living by the people of the planet.

Athletes are physically fit. They exercise regularly, have no fat layers and eat healthy food.

How many adult athletes across the world have died of coronavirus? Many may be infected but not die. 

They are protected by physical fitness from a diet of fruit and vegetables, daily exercise, clean water and abstinence from cigarettes and drugs. Coronavirus is a respiratory infection  with severe cases causing lung failure. HIV/AIDS reduces the effectiveness of the immune system. 

Do medications against pre-existing illnesses protect against the coronavirus? Tom Hanks claimed to have diabetes 2 but has now been discharged from hospital.

The lack of obesity may have contributed to an absence of diabetes 2, high blood pressure and cancer that opens the door to coronavirus. Obesity is a pre-existing illness.

Athletes may well be safe from death from coronavirus. There has been a focus on obesity in the media of the world over recent years.  But athletes have strong blood pressure, muscles and internal organs including kidneys that can break down.

Perhaps a slack lifestyle is now contributing to death from coronavirus. Children can be obese too and focused on sugary food, cell phones and lack of exercise. 

The people of every country will respond differently to the virus depending on age demographics, gender, culture, response to authority, family, hope, population density, sanitation, water supply, access to food supplies, medical support, drugs and media warnings. 

Active children may be spared from death. Old people will lack exercise and strength of their immune systems. They will suffer from pre-existing illness that cause death in conjunction with coronavirus.

The editorial in The National today is entitled Eat healthy, stay healthy. The focus is on fruit, vegetables and reduction in fat intake. HIV sufferers find difficulty in removing the triglyceride fats from the belly that reach down to the internal organs.

People in Australia are aware of the dangers of Coronavirus with pre-existing illnesses. Pharmacies are being rushed for Ventolin the medicine to protect against asthma. People are hoarding medicines. Cystic fibrosis and tuberculosis are other illnesses that cause worry and death.

SHORTAGE OF ART MEDICATION IN CHINA

There was a report last night in the news sub-titles of EM TV news that HIV sufferers in Wuhan are facing shortage of ARV drugs.

Why is this so? Is production in the factory at a standstill? Or is the Government using ARV drugs as the basis of medication against coronavirus?

Will ARV medication become in short supply in Papua New Guinea and other countries?

CORONAVIRUS AND NUTRITION

Coronavirus is airborne. HIV is fluid borne. But both have a detrimental effect on the immune system and tissues. HIV causes pre-existing illnesses that produce death from coronavirus. Obesity can be caused by diet alone.

A regular report in the TV media is the importance of nutrition in strengthening the immune system against coronavirus. 

In particular is the importance of fruit and vegetables that produce nutrients that strengthen the immune system.

Let us hope that this is accurate. Fruit and vegetables do play a key role in bodily health. 

Perhaps the problem in Italy is that too many people live on lasagne, pasta and spaghetti all carbohydrates cooked in olive oil. They may suffer from obesity and malnutrition.

Too many people in Papua New Guinea live on tinned fish and white rice and are obese. This may be the cause of early deaths as reflected in the funeral notices.

A report on BBC news is that obesity is a pre-existing health problem that may leave the person vulnerable to coronavirus attack if there are pre-existing illnesses. The illnesses may be exacrbated if the sufferer lives with high air pollution and industrial waste.

There was a TV report yesterday that stated that the coronavirus lodges in the fat tissues. I hope I got that right. Fats are found in all internal organs particularly the triglyceride fats that HIV sufferers face.

It places obesity as a dangerous pre-existing condition. Most middle class people in the developed world are obese, particularly on cruise ships. It may explain why few children die as many are free from obesity.

We are told that an obese person can suffer (1) heart attack (2) diabetes 2 (3) cancer (4) stroke and (5) high blood pressure. But we are also told that with coronavirus such pre-existing infections will kill.

Obesity comes from fatty foods and little fruit and vegetables. So people who follow a fruit and vegetable diet may well survive coronavirus. 

They will be infected but survive. Country by country there appear to be national factors that dictate the levels of mortality.

HIV infected people who follow a fatty diet with ART medication will suffer trigliceride fats on the belly that can open the door to heart problems and diabetes 2. 

HIV sets up the body for death from coronavirus particularly with those who smoke and booze regardless of ART medication. Perhaps smoking and boozing lowers the immune system without HIV and ART. Then it is too late.

Why has HIV infection been excluded from all debate on coronavirus? Perhaps we must not confuse the two.

Let us hope that Positive Living applies to coronavirus infection too.