After the elderly are infected with the new crown, how should they be monitored?

Which symptoms need to be treated in a timely manner... Regarding the treatment of elderly people who are concerned about the new crown infection, the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council invited Li Yanming, director of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of Beijing Hospital, to give further interpretation.

Why are the elderly at high risk of severe illness after infection?

  Li Yanming introduced that the cold weather in winter is a season with a high incidence of respiratory infectious diseases. The elderly are a vulnerable group and a high-risk group for severe respiratory infectious diseases.

Winter is still the season of high incidence of influenza, and its severe illness also occurs mostly in the elderly. In addition to the current infection of the new coronavirus, affected by various factors, the proportion of severe illness in the elderly after infection is significantly higher than that of other groups.

How should the elderly pay attention to monitoring after infection?

  Once the elderly have a fever or a new crown infection at home, they must strengthen monitoring, especially the attention of family members.

Because the elderly may not respond so obviously to the abnormalities of the body compared to the young. For example, some elderly people have already had a high body temperature, and they do not know that they have a fever.

  Li Yanming introduced that "silent hypoxia" may occur after the elderly are infected with the new crown.

The family members felt that his breathing status seemed to be ok and stable, but the blood oxygen saturation may have been relatively low.

In particular, friends who accompany disabled elderly people must monitor the elderly’s body temperature, heart rate, pulse, and changes in peripheral blood oxygen saturation. If these indicators are relatively stable, it may not matter much. If the saturation drops, seek medical attention in time.

The sooner you seek medical attention, the greater the success rate of treatment.

After the elderly are infected, what conditions should they seek medical treatment in time?

  If you are an elderly person living alone, you need to understand your overall physical condition, including basic heart rate, blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration, peripheral oxygen saturation, etc.

  Pay attention to the changes in the general living conditions of the elderly, such as whether they are able to eat well, what is the situation of urination and defecation, whether there is urinary incontinence, whether there is a significant decrease in the amount of urine, etc.

  Pay special attention to the mental state of the elderly.

According to Li Yanming, because the elderly sometimes cannot accurately express their discomfort, if the elderly have obvious lethargy, communication difficulties, do not recognize people, do not know where they are, and express illogically, these are some dangerous signals.

  Li Yanming said that after an elderly person in the family is infected with the new crown, if symptoms such as fever, cough, and dyspnea persist or worsen, including obviously poor mental state, they need to seek medical treatment in time; Difficulties also require timely medical treatment; elderly people with underlying diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, diabetes, coronary heart disease, etc., are prone to aggravation of the condition once infected.

  Li Yanming reminded that if the elderly are over 80 years old, have serious underlying diseases, are not well controlled and have not been vaccinated against the new crown vaccine, once they are infected, their family members should be more careful when observing and taking care of them, and should seek medical treatment in time if problems arise.

  Producer | Xin Liu and Xi Luoxi

  Producer | Wang Yu

  Editor-in-Chief | Gu Xiaoci

  Reporter | Yuan Bin Huang Zhenglong

  (CCTV news client)