Dr. Ali Hassoun Discusses Coronavirus Issues, Part 2

>> najahe sherman: we are back with dr. ali hassoun, infectious disease specialist at huntsville hospital.

>> dan shaffer: dr. hassoun, we want to talk a little bit about the coronavirus outbreak we saw in our nation's capital.

We found out a few weeks ago the president and first lady tested positive.

Their son baron, 14, tested positive several days later.

All three have tested negative.

Can you discuss the situation households face when one person tests positive and how long people should worry about spread ing it.

>> dr. hassoun: in general patient who get infected are infectious seven to eight days after the symptoms started.

But if you have severe infection , you can be infectious about two weeks or more.

So it depend on did you develop pneumonia, did you get admitted to the hospital, or were you at home, had fever and sore throat only versus major pneumonia and needing oxygen.

So each stage can be different a little bit infectiousness.

But usually seven to eight days.

And it can get prolonged if you're much sicker.

People need to -- if they had one member infected, they're going to need to quarantine and separate themselves.

Watch for symptoms. they can always get tested about seven days later.

If they don't develop any symptoms too make sure they stay negative or quarantine for 10 to 14 days from their last exposures.

If they don't develop any issues usually it's going to be okay.

>> najahe sherman: first lay did mel lane ya trump said her son baron was asymptomatic.

The president said his son like many other children are able to fight the virus off better than adults because of their immune system and this has really been a major factor many getting students back in the classroom.

So from your perspective, what have you seen when it comes to the virus' impact on children and what do we know now about why they seem to be able to fight it off at a higher rate?

>> dr. hassoun: so we need to divide the age group of children because below -- actually below eight or 10-year-old and above 10-year-old because we've seen those below 8-year-old, probably they will have less transmission to others.

They can get infected but usually very mild or minimal symptoms. those above ten year old, actually they get infected as much as adults.

And that's the group where they can transmit it to adults.

And in the schoolteachers, at moment to their grandparents and parents.

Symptom-wise again can be mild, but i can tell you we've seen 14 , 15-year-old can get really sick with it.

And some of them can have some affect on their heart, some affect on the brain.

It's not as common as what adults get, but it's still possible.

>> dan shaffer: today we learned someone who flew with presidential nominee joe biden tested positive for coronavirus.

Also kamala harris suspended stops until monday after a member tested positive.

We've seen no social distancing at protests across the country.

As a medical expert what are your thoughts and concerns when you see these types of events?

>> dr. hassoun: it is very concerning, definitely.

You know, this is a set of every where where there's a crowding and there is a close contact with no masking and no precautions, it is definitely a setup for significant transmission.

Because these people is going to stay there between close to each other for a long time.

It's not going to be a minute or five minutes.

It's going to be hours.

And that's when the virus easily can transmit from one person to another.

And that's a big, big setup for increasing cases, more transmission, and it is basically setting up for significant problem as a community and health care facilities as well.

>> najahe sherman: dr. hassoun, people right now across north alabama are really concerned about the future, and rightfully so.

We are seeing an increase in cases across the u.s. and there's still no vaccine.

We obviously don't want there to be any more cases in north alabama, but from what we've seen in the region, we can expect cases to continue to go up at this point.

So what is your perspective on where we are as a region and the numbers?

Are they too high?

>> dr. hassoun: at the moment i must say they are not too high.

They are actually as expected in a level.

But what we're seeing probably we're going to see significant increase with time.

And that's why we need the community and everybody to help us with the prevention.

Because if they do the physical distancing and masking and hand hygiene, avoiding the crowd and the close contact, we -- we're going to be able to control things and do much better than expected where cases might go up significantly.

And at least give us time to get to the vaccine or get ways of treatment that's more effective than what we have.

And hopefully we can control the virus better.

>> dan shaffer: you and other health care workers are obviously dealing with a lot.

Our hats are off to all of you.

But how are you and the rest of the staff dealing with the difficult situations you find yourselves in?

>> dr. hassoun: i can tell you the months of june and july and early august was very, very stressful, was very hard and challenging.

Because we want to help all our patients.

We want to take care of them.

But it was very difficult.

Late august and september was much, much better in the way of the viral transmission and the numbers went down.

But we feeling it.

It's going to come back.

We are ready to try to help, but we need the community to help us still.

So we can control things and help everybody rather than certain set of population.

>> dan shaffer: dr. ali hassoun, infectious disease special list at huntsville hospital.

>> najahe sherman: dr. hassoun, thank you very much for your time