Don’t believe these rumors about respiratory diseases

The four most widely circulated statements at present are "wearing a mask for a long time can induce pulmonary nodules", "if you have been infected with influenza/mycoplasma pneumonia/coronavirus once, you will not get it again", "you need to take a triple combination of anti-inflammatory + antitussive + antiviral medicine to get better from respiratory infections" and "covering a fever with sweat can quickly reduce the fever". These four statements are all rumors without scientific basis. Do not follow them.

I have been working in the respiratory clinic for the past two weeks, and I have met twenty or thirty patients who have been deceived by these rumors. The one who impressed me the most was a mother and her son who came last Wednesday afternoon. The child was only 4 years old and had a fever of 38.8°C. He was wrapped in a thick down jacket and a small blanket. His face turned red from holding it in and he began to murmur as soon as he entered the door. Bao's mother said that she saw in the owner group that "a fever went away after covering it up in a sweat." After covering it at home for two hours, the body temperature rose from 38°C to almost 39°C, and she almost gave her baby a febrile convulsion.

Of course, some people will say, "I had a cold before and it really healed quickly when I covered it with sweat." This is not entirely wrong. If you are an adult in the early stages of a cold, when you first feel chilly and shivering, drink more hot water and put on a coat. Sweating a little will really make you feel better. But whether you are an adult or a child, once your face is flushed, your hands and feet are hot, and you are wrapped tightly, the heat will not be able to escape. In severe cases, it will lead to dehydration and febrile convulsions. Especially in children, the temperature regulation center is not fully developed, so don't cover it up blindly.

That day, the mother also had a bad cough and wore an N95 the whole time. During the consultation, she complained to me that she had been told that ordinary medical masks could not protect against mycoplasma, so she wore an N95 to work every day. However, she also saw someone saying that wearing a mask would cause lung nodules caused by inhaling microplastics, and she was very confused. Isn’t this the most widely circulated rumor that wearing a mask causes lung nodules? I told her that the medical staff in our department wear medical masks to work every day, and wear them for eight hours at a time. There is no statistical difference in the detection rate of pulmonary nodules during annual physical examinations compared with colleagues in the administrative department who do not wear masks very often. The filter materials of regular medical masks meet national safety standards. The so-called "microplastic release amount" is not as much as the particulate matter in the car exhaust you breathe in when you stand on the side of the road for half an hour. There is really no need to stop eating due to choking. Of course, there is no need to weld it on your face 24 hours a day. You can take it off to breathe when you go to an empty place or when you are at home.

Speaking of the misunderstanding that "you won't get sick if you have antibodies", a few days ago there was a young man in his 20s who came here after coughing for almost two weeks. He already had mild pneumonia after a CT scan. When asked why he didn't come earlier, he said he had just suffered from influenza A last month and felt that his body was full of antibodies and he would definitely not get respiratory diseases again. He had to endure the cough until he couldn't sleep at night. In fact, the saying that "one infection leads to lifelong immunity" really deceives many people. You say it is completely wrong, and it is not. After infection, you will indeed develop resistance to the same subtype of pathogens for several months to half a year. But the problem is that there are more than ten serotypes of mycoplasma. The influenza strains that are prevalent every year mutate, and the new coronavirus strains are changing one after another. The antibodies you produced during the last infection are completely useless against the subtypes that are circulating this time. How can you be "lifelong immune"? Of course, some people say that I haven’t caught a cold for a whole year since I last had the flu. That can only mean that you are lucky and have not encountered an epidemic strain that does not match your antibodies. It really cannot be regarded as a general rule.

There is also an even more outrageous girl. She came to have her liver function checked a few days ago and found that her transaminase was more than twice as high as the normal value. When asked, people around her have been sick recently. She had a cough, so she took the "triple prescription" mentioned on the Internet, azithromycin + oseltamivir + dextromethorphan, for five days in a row. However, the symptoms did not improve, and her liver function was damaged first. Many people now stock up on this "universal package" when stocking up on medicines. No matter what the infection is, they take one round first. This is actually completely wrong. Antibiotics (also known as anti-inflammatory drugs) are only effective against pathogens such as bacteria and mycoplasma, and are completely useless against viral infections. ； Oseltamivir is only effective against influenza A and B influenza, and has no effect at all on common cold, adenovirus, and rhinovirus infections. Of course, some people will say that I did get better quickly after eating this way last time. That’s when you happen to encounter mycoplasma combined with influenza. If you eat it indiscriminately, it will be useless at best, or it will hurt the liver and kidneys like this girl. It is completely outweighing the gain.

In fact, it is easy to distinguish this kind of statement when you encounter it. However, any statement that is very absolute, such as "everyone must do this" or "it works as soon as it is used", is basically unreliable. If you are really unsure, you can search for popular science in regular hospitals, or ask community doctors. Don't let wind and rain come, and in the end it is you and your family who will suffer.