Gargling with water may help reduce Covid-19 symptoms

WE ARE all waiting eagerly for news about vaccine development and of drug treatments that might prove effective against Covid-19.

If you develop symptoms then it is important to selfisolate and get a test.

There is currently no specific treatment, so you should try to treat the symptoms with simple measures such as taking plenty of clear fluids and paracetamol to help the fever and the pains.

Research from Taiwan suggests that gargling might also help.

It is thought that gargling may reduce the viral load in the throat and positively influence the course of the disease. The researchers even suggest that regular gargling with saline or tap water may be beneficial to both highrisk individuals, healthcare workers and the population in general.

Several other studies seem to back this up, since they have shown that the virus is most active in the throat during the early days of Covid-19 infection.

Other studies on upper respiratory infections have demonstrated that gargling with tap water or saline can reduce both the viral load and the severity of illness in upper respiratory infections.

Researchers in Hong Kong recently showed that viral loads in Covid-19 patients were highest in throat swabs taken during the first week of infection, with a peak level at day four.

A study from China also showed that patients with more severe Covid-19 had higher viral loads in the nasopharynx, which means the back of the nose and upper part of the throat.

Another trial in Japan found that gargling with tap water three times per day reduced the incidence of upper respiratory infections by more than 35 per cent.

Similarly, a British trial found that patients with upper respiratory infections who gargled with saline during the first two days of symptoms, reduced the viral load, and also reduced the average length of the infection by two days.

Not only that, but there was a 36 per cent reduction in the use of medication needed and also a 35 per cent reduction in household transmission.

It is thought that gargling may result in viral shedding.

They suggest that during the current pandemic gargling with tap water or saline might be beneficial for high-risk people who are shielding as well as for people in self isolation with symptoms.

I am certainly doing it now.