Coronavirus just the beginning warns health expert
Coronavirus may be the symptom of a much bigger problem according to one leading health expert as bacterial infections becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics making common infections potentially life threatening in the future.
With more new patients being diagnosed with coronavirus every day in the UK, fear is beginning to spread although the number of confirmed cases is still very small compared to other countries. The UK government has scheduled a Cobra emergency committee meeting with emergency legislation likely to be approved. Downing street have reassured the public that they are doing everything to limit the spread to ensure we are prepared.
Researchers are currently developing a vaccination for the virus however this won’t be ready until next year and with the NHS already struggling with a chronic shortage of beds, questions are being raised as to how will cope with an influx of patients requiring quarantine.
Amelia Davies is Head of Clinical Services at The Unlimited Wellbeing Group (www.unlimitedwellbeing.business) having previously worked in the NHS on an emergency assessment unit.
“I have seen first-hand the immense pressure hospital staff are under in this climate,” says Amelia. “It was a challenging place to work as I was allocated up to 14 sick patients at a time with some who had sepsis along with organ failure. This was 5 years ago so I can’t imagine what pressure the hospitals are facing now which leads me to question, how will they cope with a pandemic?”
Despite extensive scaremongering around the virus in the media, Amelia says she is less concerned about the coronavirus itself than her real fear of what lies ahead in the next few decades.
“As we have seeing more bacterial infections becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics due to years of overprescribing, we are now facing a much bigger problem” explains Amelia. “My real fear is not coronavirus itself but that humans will have to face bacterial infections everyday which could be life-threatening leading and consequently lead to more premature deaths. More common diseases like sexually transmitted infections are now becoming harder to treat which gives a sense of what it was like before we discovered antibiotics. In the future, women may fear again something as natural as childbirth due to the risk of infection afterwards.”
Coronavirus is clearly a serious problem for us right now but is the danger ahead of antibiotic resistance something much bigger and more frightening?