PressSplit
Masks for patients are once again a topic in the Ehnert/Kleinschmidt practice in Bad Nauheim, left Dr. Lutz Ehnert. The employees have recently started wearing masks again. © Petra Ihm-Fahle
Many people are currently becoming infected with corona viruses again. Where does this come from? How severe are the symptoms and how should those affected behave?
Basically, most people have not given much thought to Covid infections. Now the infection rate has somewhat decreased. “We can say that about 20 percent of summer infections are due to corona viruses. But the peak has been passed and is declining,” explains internist Dr. Lutz Ehnert from Bad Nauheim.
A hint of a sore throat was the first symptom. Two days later, when I still had cold symptoms and had a press appointment ahead of me, I took a corona test to be on the safe side, which I picked up at the pharmacy. As usual, I expected the result to be negative. After all, the entire pandemic had passed me by because of the corona virus, I have been vaccinated five times and have always been very careful.
A red line in the test strip
But no luck, a red line appeared in the lower part of the test strip. I immediately went into quarantine and informed people I had been in contact with. I also wondered where I had caught the virus. Probably at a concert, but there was nothing I could do about it. I had what was called a “mild course”. For three days I had a headache, a sore throat and – if I did any physical exertion – I would get nausea. A few days later I felt well again and did a test that I had gotten from the discount store. And lo and behold, I was happy to have a negative result.
To be on the safe side, I immediately did a second test from the pharmacy – and I was positive again. When I looked closely, I saw that the discount store test also showed a barely noticeable red line. So not every test result can be trusted. Dr. Ehnert advised me on the phone about appropriate behavior. We also agreed to do an interview about Corona for this newspaper when I was healthy again. I had already heard that the disease is currently rampant. When I arrived for the interview, I immediately noticed a sign at the reception: “We ask you to wear a mask if you have cold symptoms such as cough, runny nose, fever, etc.”
Staff wear masks again
According to Ehnert, 20 percent of his employees have been infected with corona in recent weeks. Most of them had mild symptoms, but one pregnant colleague was even considering being admitted to hospital. Due to the risk of infection, the workforce temporarily wore masks again while at work.
According to Ehnert, the current epidemic phase was identified using wastewater tests from hygiene institutes, as testing is no longer mandatory. Based on this, there were 4,380 corona patients in Germany at the beginning of the week. “It is highly infectious and we advise patients to isolate themselves as long as they test positive,” says the doctor. He recommends taking it easy, and if contact does occur, wearing an FFP2 mask and keeping your distance. Even if many cases are milder than before, there are still serious cases.
“We had patients who had clear flu symptoms in the first few days and said ‘I don’t want to have this anymore.'” As he explains, the virus currently circulating is probably a mutation against which some of the existing vaccinations do not protect. However, he says a new vaccine should be available in just a few weeks.
I also went to the Kur-Apotheke in Bad Nauheim to find out whether customers there are increasingly asking for corona tests. As owner Dr. Dirk Hildebrand describes, demand has increased somewhat in the past two to three weeks, but it is nowhere near as high as it was during the pandemic.
Let’s hope that the epidemic will soon be over. I’ve stocked up on FFP2 masks for now.
