How To Care For A Patient At Home

What do you do when someone in your household has fallen sick? How do you take care of them while ensuring that you and other family members don’t get sick? First, differentiate the symptoms between COVID-19 and the flu, and work to help them get better. Second, the chosen caregiver should not be someone at risk of contracting COVID-19

Here are Ways To Take Care Of A Sick Loved One:

1) Take Care Of Their Basic Needs

Coronavirus symptoms appear 2-14 days after exposure. In this period, the quarantined or self-isolating patient will need access to food, drugs and stay in a room that’s accessible without stairs as fatigue and shortness of breath are key virus symptoms.

In addition to this, getting their prescription medications for them, doing their grocery shopping and ensuring they take a lot of fluids will go a long way to helping them alleviate the symptoms and hasten the recovery process. Alternatively and if they live far from you, you can look for a delivery service to deliver fruits, vegetables, and dawas for the patient.

Limit contact between the patient and family members. If possible, let them have a separate bedroom, bathroom and have their food delivered to them. The sick room or bedroom should be properly ventilated, and so should the common areas.

Wear a Mask and Use Gloves To Clean Their Utensils, Clothes and Common Areas

Wear gloves when cleaning a sick person’s utensils, clothes and in cases where you have to come into contact with their saliva, urine, mucus, vomit or clean the designated bathrooms, common bathrooms and common areas. Alternatively, the patient can have separate and designated utensils and depending on the level of sickness, the patient can clean after themselves.

When entering the sick room, the patient and the caregiver should wear a mask, and the caregiver should wear gloves to minimize exposure and contracting the virus. As a caregiver, ensure that you wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your eyes, ears, nose and mouth. 

Clean and Disinfect Frequently Used Surfaces

Frequently used surfaces such as kitchen tops, doorknobs, desks, sinks, electronics, and other surfaces that count as frequently used in your household should be cleaned and disinfected.

Wear gloves when cleaning the surfaces, and follow up with disinfecting. For electric devices use alcohol-based disinfectant to clean and follow the manufacturer’s instructions on cleaning practices. Hopefully, you and your family will be safe and won’t need this advice but in case you do it will help you keep your household safe and bring your patient back to health.

This article is meant for informational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for a Doctor’s advice. Consult a doctor before making any medical decision and keep yourself up to date with COVID-19 updates from WHO.

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