UM Surabaya Lecturer: This is a Way to Prevent Omicron in the Elderly that You Must Know

• 20 Feb
• 2022

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UM Surabaya Lecturer: This is a Way to Prevent Omicron in the Elderly that You Must Know

• Article
• By Uswah Sahal
• Covid-19
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Based on report data via https://covid19.go.id/ as of February 18 2022, the number of deaths due to Covid-19 at the age of over 60 years is 46.8%, meaning that the number of deaths in the elderly is quite a lot. The elderly are the most vulnerable group due to a decrease in the body's immune system and tend to be multipathological, so they are more at risk of suffering from death due to Covid-19.

Dede Nasrullah, UM Surabaya Health Specialist and Lecturer in Nursing specialist in gerontics, explained that preventing Covid-19 cases in the elderly involves the community and the most important is the family. He emphasized that every individual in every family is more aware of the symptoms and signs of Covid-19 for the elderly.

"Symptoms in the elderly exposed to the Omicron variant are almost the same as those in adult patients, namely runny nose, headache, fever, fatigue, and sore throat," explained Dede Sunday (20/2/22)

Dede emphasized that in the Omicron variant in the elderly there were no symptoms of decreased function of the sense of smell and taste as previously caused by the Delta variant. The severe symptoms of the Omicron variant can be experienced by all ages. It's just that the elderly who are exposed to the Omicron variant have a greater potential to experience severe symptoms.

“Usually parents who have comorbid diseases and are easily exposed to Omicron variants that require intensive care. Even though the Covid-19 variant of Omicron has mild symptoms, elderly patients remain a vulnerable group who are recommended to be hospitalized to avoid certain complications, especially those with comorbidities,” he said again.

Furthermore, Dede shared several tips for preventing Omicron in the elderly. First, namely the role of the family to ensure that the elderly understand the current conditions, giving examples of continuing to wear masks, maintaining distance, washing hands after doing activities, having sufficient air ventilation, staying indoors. house and do routine activities such as sunbathing in the morning, light exercise to stretch the muscles such as gardening activities.

“Families also need to ensure that the elderly get food with balanced nutrition, sufficient carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. And most importantly, avoid touching, shaking hands and reducing visits to health facilities except in emergencies," he added.

At the end of his statement, he also added that other things that need to be done are to keep the elderly away from crowded centers and crowds, and if possible, family members who are quite far enough to communicate via video calls and so on.

"Finally, avoid stress on the elderly due to social distancing so that families must continue to provide light activities so that the elderly are not stressed and anxious. Let's continue to look after and protect our families, especially those who are very vulnerable, so they don't get infected with the corona virus," he stressed.