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Local doctors say it's the season for giving and getting sick. All the family gatherings this holiday weekend helped several viruses spread quickly.
Local 12 Medical Reporter Liz Bonis shares the latest sign and symptoms of What's Going Around in today's Medical Edge.
The chief complaints going around in Norwood, at Bethesda Family Medicine, are pretty much what we are seeing all over the Tri-State. It's mainly sinus problems and stomach problems. Depending on which you have will depend on how long your symptoms are going to last.
Doctor Scott Woods says both are viruses. Respiratory and breathing problems accompany the sinus virus, which can lead to a bad case sinusitis.
Dr. Scott Woods, Bethesda Family Medicine: "Usually, people are ill with the respiratory illness for about five to seven days and they go away, when things start going beyond seven days, particularly if its not getting better, you have to be thinking about sinusitis."
Sinusitis needs a course of antibiotics if it becomes a true bacterial infection. You can't pop a pill, however, Woods says, to ease the g-i virus going around.
"It's mostly been lasting about a day, for the most part, but definitely plenty of vomiting associated with it as well as some diarrhea. Most of the people we are seeing, however, are having more vomiting than diarrhea."
Then, aside from that, if you want to keep from getting these, three things seem to be the key:
The three feet rule... stay three feet away from anyone who's sick.
Second, keep your own hands away from your own face, so you don't spread the virus or take it into the body.
And third, wash your hands... and this isn't just a short wash. You really need to scrub longer, and if you haven't heard the rule in awhile, it's enough to scrub to sing Happy Birthday twice.
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