By Christa Poggemiller| The Hawk Eye
Its hard to believe eight months have passed since we first starting hearing about COVID-19 and at least seven months since the first lockdowns.
Probably like a good majority of our neighbors, we have all grown tired of being cooped up, tired of having to worry about where you can safely go, or just plain worried about contracting COVID.
Over the past few months, I have written several articles to highlight what we can do to stay safe and prevent further COVID-19 community spread. I am not going to focus this article on COVID-19 anymore than to remind everyone, it is normal to have COVID fatigue and not feel motivated to follow the health strategies or even consider not following the recommendations when you are contacted by local health departments.
But the most important thing we can do for ourselves, our families and neighbors is to follow those isolation recommendations. Close contacts (those within six feet for a duration of 15-minutes) to a positive COVID case can become symptomatic and COVID positive literally at any time during their 14-day isolation. Once this person is positive, anyone they came in contact with during the 48-hours prior to having symptoms or a positive test will need to quarantine, and those people also could develop the virus, which means now they have exposed more families and people in the community.
Our current community 14-day rolling percentage has gone up significantly over the past few weeks. I am encouraging everyone to do their part to bring those numbers back down by following isolation recommendations and continuing to follow the guidelines: social distance, good handwashing and stay home when your sick.
Together, we will get through this.
During COVID-19, some of the other important health promotion activities or your routine health visits may gotten missed. Things like annual check-ups, childrens immunizations or flu shots may have gotten postponed and still havent been done. Now may be a good time to reach out to your health care provider or local health department and get those caught up. Maintaining good health, managing chronic diseases and early diagnosis is especially important to overall wellness.
Of those chronic diseases, diabetes is one that affected about 34.2 million Americans, or about 10.5% of the population, in 2018. According to American Diabetes Association, each year about 1.5 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes, and another 7.3 million people go undiagnosed.
November is raising awareness about diabetes month. So, what is diabetes? Diabetes is a disease that affects how your body turns food into energy. If you have diabetes, your body either doesnt make enough insulin or cant use the insulin it makes as well as it should. When there isnt enough insulin or cells stop responding to insulin, too much blood sugar stays in your bloodstream, which can cause serious health problems over time.
Ninety-five percent of people with diabetes have Type 2. Common symptoms of Type 2 diabetes can include: excessive thirst, frequent urination, blurred vision, fatigue and unexpected weight loss. Its untreated Type 2 diabetes can lead to blindness, heart attack, kidney failure, stroke or loss of toes, feet or legs.
What can you do about it?
You dont have to make big changes to prevent or delay diabetes.
Before beginning any exercise or weight-loss program consult your healthcare provider. For more information visit: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/
Christa Poggemiller is director of Des Moines County Public Health.
The rest is here:
In the Public Health: Don't let pandemic fatigue get the better of you - Burlington Hawk Eye
