‘It’s the unknown that’s most frightening’ – British-Maltese doctor who recovered from Coronavirus
A British-Maltese doctor has opened up about her experiences after she recovered from Coronavirus.
Clare Gerada, whose father is Maltese, is a general practitioner in London, and is the head of a national service in the UK which cares for doctors with mental illness. She also served as the chair of the Royal College of GPs between 2010 and 2013.
She had just returned to the United Kingdom from a trip to New York at a time when the city had announced a state of emergency, when she started to develop the symptoms of the virus.
Two days after she arrived in the UK, as well as feeling rather tired, she developed a mild dry cough – it was so mild that she put it down to the long flight she had been on in the previous days.
Soon after that, though, she developed a sore throat. “It felt as if someone had put knives in my throat. And then the high temperature hit. I was feverish and got the shakes,”she said.
“I was tested, but even without it I knew I had it,” Gerada told
when asked how she found out that she had contracted the virus.
Besides the cough and temperature, Gerada went on to suffer from a “vice like headache”, “malaise”, a lack of appetite, and the desire to do nothing but sleep.
“It was a ‘flu-like’ illness,” she said.
“I knew it was the Coronavirus, as I am never normally ill and the flu season was all but over — plus I’d had my jab,” she remarked.
“And this was obviously more than a cold. Within hours of getting my first symptoms, I wasn’t able to eat. I went for two days with no food at all, as I had no appetite and also had a horrible metallic taste in my mouth which made food taste unpleasant. Eating felt like too much effort,” she noted.
“I collapsed into bed and had very fitful sleep because of my high temperature, but I forced myself to drink a lot — lemonade and bitter lemon. I couldn’t drink tea because my mouth and throat were so sore.”
“Within hours my nose became full of ulcers and I imagine the back of my mouth was the same,” she said.
“All I wanted to do was sleep — I’d considered keeping a video diary, but even the thought of a holding a phone seemed too much.”
She noted that she took two paracetamol every eight hours.
The virus has had a different effect on different people, with some reporting milder symptoms, and some – particularly those suffering from underlying health conditions – reporting more serious effects.
Gerada explains, however, that for her there was never the fear of being at risk of death – namely due to the fact that she is “fit and well” and does not have any underlying health conditions.
Recovery time in patients has also varied across different patients. In Gerada’s case, she suffered from the illness for around two and a half days, before spending a further four days in recovery.
In spite of contracting the virus, she was never admitted to hospital. “I stayed at home and in bed the whole time,” she said, with her husband isolated from her but bringing her drinks and paracetamol.
Reports have emerged that people who were diagnosed as having contracted the virus and then went on to recover, then got the virus for a second time. Asked how much credence there is to these reports, Gerada said that it is “unlikely” for someone to contract the virus a second time.
“It is probably the same illness which is still testing positive. You can get things twice, but in the main one would develop immunity – at least for a period of time, as is the case with the seasonal flu,” she explained.
With mainland Europe reeling from the effects of the virus, the United Kingdom is only beginning to feel the brunt of the outbreak, with 1,950 confirmed cases and 56 deaths up until Tuesday afternoon. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, however, has indicated that the number of those who have contracted the virus may be far greater.
“It’s miserable really,” Gerada said when asked what the situation in the UK is with regards to the outbreak. “Everyone is so worried; people don’t know how this is all going to end. I am sure it’s the same across the world,” she said.
“It’s the unknown that is most frightening,” she says.
This being said though, she is pleased to have had the illness. “I am pleased that I have had the illness, at least a major aspect for me – the fear of what it would be like – has gone,” she explained.
Asked what the best thing to do to fight the virus in the meantime would be, Gerada replied with three words that have become almost synonymous with the worldwide fight against the novel pandemic: “Wash your hands”.