Awareness lecture about coronavirus

Birzeit University’s Faculty of Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Professions, Pharm D. Club, and Augusta Victoria Hospital held a lecture to inform and give guidance about how to deal with the current outbreak of the coronavirus disease, on March 3, 2020.

Dr. Ali Sabatin, an infectious disease specialist, spoke to raise awareness among students, faculty, and staff members about the symptoms of coronavirus, how it is spread, and proper means of protection.

Sabatin started the lecture by defining coronavirus as a large family of viruses that are common in both humans and animals and can infect people and then spread between them. The Coronavirus, Sabatin continued, was first discovered in China and has now been detected in almost 70 countries worldwide. He listed the symptoms of the virus that include cough, shortness of breath, diarrhea, and fever, among other symptoms, saying that they may appear 2-14 days after exposure.

Palestine, Sabatin said, had remained free of the disease up until the time of the lecture. He nevertheless stressed the importance of maintaining basic protection measures that include washing one’s hands frequently, maintaining social distance, using masks, and covering mouth and nose with a bent elbow or a tissue when coughing or sneezing. Sabatin added that it is vital to clean surfaces and objects with alcohol-based solutions, as stressed by regulations issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Sabatin mentioned that researchers currently consider the elderly and patients with weak immunity and heart disease as most likely to suffer from serious conditions once they are exposed to the virus. Children are the least affected, he said.

Sabatin concluded the lecture by reviewing the most important measures that help prevent coronavirus infection.