The  number of cases of coronavirus  in Panama will double every  five to  seven days leading infectologist, Xavier Sáez Llorens warned on  TVN on Monday, March 16.

He added that the moment they begin to carry out massive detection they will find more cases.

In the case of Panama, if international examples are followed, it would be expected that every five or seven days, the number of detected cases will double and it is certain that in the next two months, there will be many cases.

 “It is likely that we have more cases than we have been able to detect because there are many people with mild forms who do not go for medical attention.

The infectologist hopes that with the rigorous mitigation measures that have been applied in the country, they can make that there are no more cases than expected, as reported in China for example.

For now, the figures are expected according to the information that is available from other countries, the important thing is that 80% of these cases are mild.

“We already have 55 cases and if you put the growth rate into perspective, the number of cases in the country in a week will grow in a  very similar rate to what happened in China. "

Use of medications and vitamin C

Sáez Llorens pointed out that the effects that medications such as ibuprofen can cause in the human body with this virus have not yet been scientifically proven, this is very preliminary information.

This is because the virus attaches to a receptor, in the respiratory tract, and it is known that some medicines used for diabetes or hypertension could increase the expression of that receptor.

But these,  are physiological speculations, but not demonstrated in the clinic so the same article that published it adds a precautionary note that this has to be scientifically verified and validated before people who need these drugs for your underlying illnesses; continue them 

"This is important to keep in mind and to wait for a little more scientific information to really make a timely change," he recommended. Meanwhile, people who don't have to take an anti-inflammatory essentially can take acetaminophen or acetaminophen, which are much safer products.

Regarding vitamin C, he reiterated that there is no scientific demonstration that citrus helps recovery from an infection, as long as one eats healthy and varied many foods including vegetables and fruits, there is the necessary vitamin C and other vitamins for the body can respond appropriately.

Taking too much vitamin C, or citrus, also has its detriment effect said the doctor. In fact, there are diseases that we call hypervitaminosis that are caused by it. "You have to be careful about doing more than is really indicated."

Vaccine  He added that for next year a vaccine would be ready to try to counteract the virus; and that there are currently indications that they will soon have a treatment that could be effective in destroying the virus. Currently, there are more than 200 trials around the world with various drugs.

For now, the dialectologist reiterated that "handwashing is the cheapest and most  effective  way  of fighting the virus

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