Coronavirus & Dealing With Back Pain At Home

With the threat of coronavirus looming, the case that many, many of us will need to self-isolate at home as a means to contain spread of disease seems to be becoming more and more likely. Today we’re going to give a brief overview as to what the general advice of the government is, symptoms you should be looking out for, and just how you should be taking care of your back if you need to isolate yourself in your home.

Coronavirus is by definition a family of viruses. Some of them even cause illnesses like the common cold, but others can be more serious as they mainly affect the lower respiratory tract: i.e. SARS, MERS and COVID-19. With these being lower respiratory viruses, COVID-19 specifically causes a high temperature, a cough and shortness of breath – with upper respiratory symptoms like a runny nose being absent. Anyone can become infected, but some will show absolutely no symptoms, which can make containment of the virus an issue. True numbers of how many are/have been infected are difficult to estimate since the numbers could be much greater. Risk of severe illness and death increases in elderly age, as well as people with underlying lung or health conditions, since the disease causes pneumonia. Illness is much less common and less severe in younger adults, and while children can have severe illness the current data suggests that overall illness seems to be rare in those under the age of 20.

What Is The Mortality Rate Of COVID-19?

To put the virus into context, COVID-19’s current mortality rate is roughly 1-3% depending on the age-category. Previous outbreaks of coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS affected much fewer people but had greater mortality rates. COVID-19 has infected tens of thousands of people worldwide in a very short space of time. SARS in 2002 infected roughly around 8000 people after around 6 months, with a mortality rate of 10%, while MERS in 2012 took one year to infect 108, with a mortality rate of 35%. By contrast, the reported cases of seasonal influenza each year affect roughly 3-5 million people seriously enough for them to seek treatment, while there are likely many more cases for which treatment is not sought. Of these millions, 290,000-650,000 deaths occur each year.

Alternatively, if you feel you’re in a great deal of pain then you can book in for one of our virtual 30 minute consultations. These can be done either over the phone, but preferably via video call, and will be going through with you any case history, the symptoms you currently have, testing to establish the kind of problem you’re experiencing, as well as guidance on what exercises you can perform, how to do them and any adjustments you should be making to your day-to-day life to help you in this critical time. These virtual consultations are priced at £25 and can be booked either by calling us on 0203 947 3222, or click the button below, to take you to the next step.

If you have any questions at all regarding back or neck pain, our free membership area or about our virtual consultations, please feel free to get in touch with us through the contact methods listed above and we’d be happy to help! Don’t forget to share this with any one of your friends of family who might have a history or back or neck pain, or who are currently suffering, as well as anyone you know who may currently be quarantined or self-isolating to prevent the spread of COVID-19.