are there any special considerations for pregnant or vulnerable patients or staff?
there are some excellent resources on the CDC website. if you click on
coronavirus and you go down to the boxes. there's one specifically for persons
with special health conditions, including pregnancy. one of the points to make is
that it's not clear and has not been shown that COVID-19 can transmit to a
fetus. but again, we're still early and there's so much to be learned in this
and how can pregnant women prevent themselves from getting it. I think it's
all of the things we're telling everyone to do. remain at home. only go out for
essential activities. and, that will help to reduce the risk of exposure and
potential infection that would be going on. for other individuals who may have
other underlying health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes and
respiratory conditions, it's very important that they protect themselves
and limit exposures to those outside of their household staff. so, I encourage you
again go to the CDC website. look at all the resources they have, but if you have
specific questions about medically vulnerable populations and individuals,
there's great information on there for you. I would also like to point out that
evidence coming out of — particularly Italy — COVID-19 severity of infection
in elderly populations and those that have underlying health conditions is
serious. and, it's important. but, they're also seeing serious disease in younger
individuals — 20 to 50 years of age. so, we want to try to protect everyone from
this. and, I think one of the pieces that I'd like to tie into this is that two
sort of primary goals — when you think about infection and prevention and
control — is that we want to prevent healthcare associated infections and
injuries and illnesses in patients. and, as we
remember those and remind ourselves of that, now it's very important within all
of our dental practice settings — large and small — we want to consider reducing
contact with patients to only those where there is a true emergent need — to,
in fact, help prevent healthcare associated infections and those injuries
and illnesses in personnel. Eve, did you want to add to this? no. that's good advice,
Kathy. I would also just say that I know some of the questions that the ADA
received were from dentists or dental providers that may be in a higher risk
category, you know: over 60 or 65, underlying heart disease, respiratory
ailments. and, they're feeling obligated to continue to care for patients,
which I applaud. however, I do believe that if you have these health conditions
or concerns you need to consult with your primary care provider and make sure
that you're not putting yourself at an increased risk, especially if there are
people who have lower risk factors that can step in and provide that care, who
have a greater chance of recovery. because, we know a vast majority of
people who contract quality COVID-19; they recover; but the people who are not
recovering are — to a great extent — those people who have a higher risk factor. and,
even though we know in in the U.S. it's looking as if nearly 40% of all of the
hospitalizations for this disease are among 20 to 54 year olds
they're still surviving it to a greater degree than older or people with
health conditions are. absolutely.
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