The Open Air Method: What We Might Be Missing To Treating COVID-19
During the Influenza pandemic of 1918, it was common practice for sick patients to be treated outside in tenets or open wards. This is known as the open-air method. The English physician John Coakley used the open-air method in 1791 to treat children suffering from tuberculous.
A combination of fresh air, sunlight, scrupulous standards of hygiene and reusable face masks appear to have substantially reduced deaths among some patients and infections among medical staff.
Sunlight increases vitamin D levels, which boosts the immune system. Additionally ultraviolet light renders viruses like COVID-19, and the flu, inactive. During the Influenza pandemic, in a typical hospital that had 76 cases, 20 patients would die in a three day period while 17 nurses would become sick. Adopting the “open air” method brought fatalities down from 40% to 13%.
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Today, our modern hospitals are severely lacking in the “open-air” method. It’s been estimated by several different studies that a large portion of COVID-19 cases are being contracted within hospitals. Numbers from NHS England indicate that up to 20% of hospital patients with COVID-19 became infected at the hospital.
Nurses and other staff have inadvertently passed on the virus to patients because they did not have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) or could not get tested for the virus.
In Wuhan, China it’s estimated that hospital-related transmission is associated with 41% of cases. In the U.S., it’s estimated that 1.7 million healthcare-associated infections occur in hospitals each year. In past outbreaks, SARS, which is similar to COVID-19 has been said to be a “super spreader” in Ontario in 2003, 77% of SARS cases were contracted in a hospital.
Related: How to Breathe
Dr. John Loannidis recommends not going to the hospital with COVID-19 if your symptoms are mild. Many people are able to spread COVID-19 to those who are immune-compromised. A study analyzed the mortality rates of 5,700 patients in New York City who were placed on ventilators. The mortality rate of these cases was anywhere from 76.4% to 97.2% depending on age.
If you’re worried about COVID-19, having a healthy gut is the best thing you can do to avoid getting sick, and of course sunlight and fresh air are great too.