COVID-19 hospitals across Bengaluru are witnessinga new trend - of entire families getting infected with SARS-CoV 2.
In a recent incident, all 22members of a family from Bengaluru tested positive and all of them requiredhospitalisation.
The family was treated at a private hospital on Bannerghatta Road and all of them, luckily, got better. The members included a couple that worked as domestic help.
According to TOI, a doctor who treated the familysaid ¡°Imagine the financial burden on the family, not just the stress, anxietyand loss of health. This proves that the infection is spreading more indoorswhere social distancing is not being followed.¡±
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¡°The infectivity is highest two days prior toshowing of clear symptoms and one day after, as per one research. This is thetime when other members of the family too get infected. There is an introducerwithin the family and he/she spreads the virus to others,¡± said Dr RaveendraMehta, chief of pulmonology at Apollo Hospitals.
Three to five members of a family getting infected has become a pattern and one or two members who step out infect the others who are homebound.
Dr Sudha Menon, director of internal medicine atFortis Hospital, recalled one family where eight people were infected. A youngman was the carrier and spread the virus to his in-laws¡¯ family too. ¡°At home,nobody bothers to take precautions. The pre-symptomatic and asymptomaticpersons do not realise that they are infectious,¡± she said.
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Dr Sunil Kumar K, a consultant for interventionalpulmonology at the hospital, told TOI, ¡°There is a misbelief that wearing ofmasks and physical distancing applies when somebody goes outside the home. Manyfamilies and individuals are to a large extent compromising on takingprecautions.¡±
¡°There are multiple families where 8-10 membershave got infected but not everyone would require hospitalisation. In manyfamilies we have observed that separate rooms and toilets are just notavailable for home isolation,¡± said Dr Kavita Patil, director of GulbargaInstitute of Medical Sciences.
In many cases where several members of a familyhave been infected, travel history has been a factor, she added.