A resident of Seattle, United States has shared how she contracted the novel coronavirus and how she recovered from it.
In a post shared on her Facebook, Elizabeth Schneider has cleared misconceptions about how one can get the deadly virus. In her post she wrote that people have been advised to wash their hands and stay away from people who have the symptoms. However, she said that is not the case as she contracted the virus 'when attending a small house party at which no one was coughing, sneezing or otherwise displaying any symptoms of illness'.
Within three days of attending the party, she said, she and 40% of folks there were all sick with the same symptoms including fever. She further said that the symptoms however, differed depending on age. She said most of her friends are in their late 40s to early 50s.
For her, she shares it was headache, fever for first three days consistently and then on and off after three days, severe body aches, joint pain and severe fatigue.
"I had a fever that spiked the first night to 103 degrees and eventually came down to 100 and then low grade 99.5. Only a very few of us had a mild itchy cough. Very few had chest tightness or other respiratory symptoms," she wrote in her post.
Schneider said that the main issue is that without reporting a cough or trouble breathing many 'of us were refused testing'. She raised alarm that the lack of testing is leading to folks to believe that they just have a cold or something else going out into public and spreading it. "And worse folks with no symptoms are also spreading it as in the case of a person attending a party or social gathering who has no symptoms," she said.
She said she got herself tested at Seattle Flu Study. "I was told that all of the samples that have tested positive in the research study have been confirmed by Public Health," she said.
She also shared what worked for her. "One thing that I believe may have saved me from getting worse respiratory symptoms is the fact that I consistently took Sudafed, used Afrin nasal spray (3 sprays in each nostril, 3 days at a time), and used Neti pot (with purified water)," she said.
The King County Public Health Department, Schneider recommends staying isolated for seven days after the start of symptoms or 72 hours after fever subsides. "I have surpassed both deadlines so I am no longer isolating myself however I am avoiding strenuous activity and large crowds," she added.