‘I cooked the virus out of me’
A Kiwi suspected to have contracted coronavirus in Austria says the sickness caused severe body aches and ‘‘debilitating’’ cold sweats.
Louis Purucker, a 32-year-old snowboarder from Golden Bay who has been living in the ski resort town of Mayrhofen, said Covid-19 was sweeping through the village and his circle of friends.
Emerging from the last days of the illness, Purucker said the landlocked country was in strict lockdown, with curfews put in place to stop the virus spreading. Only supermarkets, petrol stations, pharmacies and tobacconists remained open.
With the country’s death toll reaching six, the number of coronavirus cases in Austria topped 2000 yesterday, and continues to rise at a double-digit rate.
Purucker came down with a high fever at the start of this week, which quickly developed into what he described as ‘‘severe’’ body aches and cold sweats.
‘‘The cold feeling was debilitating, but all the while I was optimistic that it could just be a bad flu,’’ he said.
At that stage, there were no reported cases in the area. Then news came through, one day into his fever, about the village’s first confirmed case – a friend who was also a bartender at the local pub, who had been serving him.
Purucker and four other friends in their circle have been tested for Covid-19 and are awaiting the results. Another friend has since tested positive.
‘‘By the time I realised I was coming down with something, I was already not allowed to leave the house because of the lockdown,’’ Purucker said.
He pushed through the high fever, which lasted 38 hours. Locking himself in the house, he took hot baths, gargled salt water and vinegar, and found that only drinking warm water alleviated his discomfort. He stayed in bed and wore all his merino clothing in a sleeping bag with the heater on full, trying to use the fever to ‘‘burn’’ the virus out of his body.
‘‘I literally cooked the virus out of me,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m all for playing it cool in the face of hype, but this is real.’’ Louis Purucker
Purucker said it didn’t affect his lungs too badly. However, he had been sick with pneumonia before, so understood how serious the illness could get.
‘‘I am very grateful that my friend’s confirmed case came through, as it changed my attitude to what I was going through, and made me immediately treat it differently.’’
The ‘‘strict’’ lockdown in Austria happened quickly, he said.
Last week, the public were warned that all ski resorts were closing on the Sunday and a curfew would be in effect. The police broke up a barbecue Purucker was having with his friends on the first unofficial lockdown day.
‘‘Although it felt like losing freedom, it also gave us the opportunity to act in accordance to this government’s swift and to-the-point manner.’’
His flat had come together for shopping and cooking, as movement outside of the house was limited to buying necessities only.
Purucker said there was a huge exodus of holidaymakers and seasonal workers who panicked and left when Austria went into lockdown, leaving those remaining in the village with a feeling of coming together – ‘‘as you do after a tragedy, yet the lockdown was to prevent the tragedy from happening’’.
He said the whole country being in lockdown had brought about a new sense of community that didn’t previously exist.
‘‘There is no panic here now.’’ Although people were less likely to buy into the hype, the way the rules had been enforced had given the people no option but to comply, he said.
‘‘I have also heard there have been a lot of arrests in some of the bigger population centres where people have been less obedient. Not so much here in the rural areas.’’
After going through the ordeal, he said people should take coronavirus seriously, but there was no need for panic.
‘‘I’m all for playing it cool in the face of hype, but this is real.
‘‘If you manage it right, you can keep on top of it before it moves to your lungs. Pneumonia is no joke.
‘‘I took no chances.’’