Nasr:To get vaccinated, maintain healthy lifestyle eliminate virus

Dr. Gamila Nasr, Head of the Cardiology Department at Suez Canal University, optimistically said that the Covid-19 new variant Omicron is less virulent

Dr. Gamila Nasr, Head of the Cardiology Department at Suez Canal University, optimistically said that the Covid-19 new variant Omicron is less virulent. It is not capable of doing complications as the Delta variant although it is vastly spread. She deemed it the start of the decay of the virus. “We are coming to the end of the problem,” she said, stressing the importance of modifying our lifestyle.

She added, in an interview with (Cairo Local Time), that people have to adopt a healthy lifestyle, assuming that it is the message of the virus. Nasr declared that 80 percent of chronic diseases can be prevented by changing the people’s way of living, advising people to quit smoking, stress and be positive. In addition, she pointed to the importance of exercising, stressing that 30 minutes of exercise four times a week will prevent 20 percent of chronic diseases.

Dr. Nasr noted that those having chronic disease are more liable to have complications. That’s why we have to urge people to get vaccinated and to take the third booster doses too, she confirmed.The government had really played a major role during the Coronavirus crisis; she conveyed, believing that the Egyptian health system had coped in a great way with this issue and had not collapse as in many other countries.

Omicron is an airborne virus that is different from the delta variant and that's why you should keep the mask everywhere, avoid crowded places and keep social distance, she said. She also referred to the decrease rate of deaths in comparison to the increase of people infected.

Although the omicron is not a dangerous variant, she said, we have to keep up with the sanitary and the precaution measures. The professor stressed that vaccination of 60% of the population is the way to terminate any epidemic besides raising immunity. Although we are not sure how the new variant responds to the vaccination, she said, people have to take the vaccine available, keep sanitary measures and adopt a healthy lifestyle.

As a professor of cardiology, Dr. Nasr said that coronavirus affected heart diseases as 18 percent of the Covid-19 patients have been associated with cardiac complications that can influence mainly the right side of the heart and the muscle.

To maintain a healthy heart, she advised people to avoid fast food, salty and sugary foods. She also recommended eating fish meals three times a week and eating a lot of vegetables and fruits.