People’s lives have changed a lot since the COVID-19 outbreak. But oddly enough, many parents have found that their children got sick less often this year. The flu is common in the fall and winter, and this past year, parents and medical professionals have noticed fewer patients with it. In July last year, Pei Honggang, a doctor at Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, posted on his Weibo account that the number of colds, hand-foot-mouth disease, and herpetic pharyngitis had all decreased. Earlier, the Guangdong Center for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a questionnaire on this issue, which may give us some insight into how things are connected.
The survey result of changes in people’s incidence of illnesses
According to the results of the survey, we found some interesting things. When asked about the change in illness this year, more than half said they had had fewer colds and flu. This may have a lot to do with changes in personal hygiene habits.
The survey result of whether people have changed hygiene habits this year
In the hygiene survey, nearly 9%t of respondents said they had changed their health habits. The specific contents of the changes are as follows:
We can see that more than 90% of people chose to wear masks when going out. What’s worth noting is that nearly 85% of people wash their hands more often. Wearing a mask is a major protection against droplet-borne infections such as COVID-19, influenza, and the common cold. During the epidemic, schools required children to wear masks during activities and maintain social distancing, which not only isolated the Coronavirus, but also greatly reduced the spread of common diseases.
How do droplets spread disease?
Washing hands, opening windows for ventilation are also important ways to prevent illness. The main route of infection of a cold is droplets, and the virus often enters the body through the mouth, nose, or mucous membrane of the eyes. If you can avoid touching the above parts with dirty hands, you can increase the chances of preventing a cold. Therefore, the decline in prevalence is closely related to the formation of good hygiene habits, and in the future, it should be advocated to maintain some of these habits to keep people healthy, especially the kids.
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Images: Pixabays, The Paper
