A leading Italian doctor who’s doing all he can to help people in the devastation that Italy faces has given a stark warning to Ireland to change our lifestyle immediately in an effort to stop the same spread here that happened in Italy.
Dr Giovanni Guaraldi, an infectious disease specialist working in Modena in northern Italy, spoke to RTE and said that Ireland needs to act fast:
Dr Guaraldi told RTE: “Initially people do not really understand the message. We closed the schools but still people were gathering with one another.
“We had to take extreme measures, for example now you cannot walk near another person, they stop you and tell you, you need to stay at home.
“We need to be clear, the only way to protect against the spread of the epidemic is stay at home and try not to meet other people.
“This is a very difficult message to tell people, but we also need to explain to people that they must not be scared and in time this epidemic will be over.
“We are near the summer time and of course the sun will reduce the transmission of this disease. We are able to control this issue with the right measures.”
The top medic continued by saying:
“Hospitals need to prepare that their organisation must be completely different than before.
“We are facing an unprecedented epidemic that requires a contribution from all healthcare workers. Of course the people mostly involved are people working in infectious diseases, respiratory medicine and in intensive care units.
“But we have realised that this is not enough and so what happened is former colleagues who retired came back to work, but also people working in other specialities, such as surgeons who have much less work now.
“All our hospital is concentrating now on this need.
The respected doctor said that we all need to work together on this:
“Medical staff also need to make sure that hospitals and healthcare workers in the community work together.
“We need to work with the GPs because most of the infection needs to be treated at home.
“GPs must do their job and understand that the need to monitor respiratory distress in patients and only hospitalise people who have got severe pneumonia.
“So this requires exceptional measures, and people should not be scared about that, but be aware that they need to totally change their lifestyle.”
This was not easy in my country because Italians love to get together all the time.”
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