With at least 61 diagnosed cases and three deaths from the coronavirus in Coahoma County, local doctors are spotting many different signs that could go unnoticed and are watching how the community – specifically the health community -- responds to this disease.
Family nurse practitioner Dr. Lea Ann Byrd of Byrd Family Medical Clinic has had 10 patients test positive for COVID-19 and all were exposed to it.
“None of them have had fever,” Byrd said. “They’ve all had mild symptoms. It can easily be missed.” Byrd said symptoms include sinus congestion, headaches, muscle aches and loss of smell and taste.
Byrd said the woman whose only symptoms were loss of smell and taste worked at a nursing home.
“Some had no symptoms at all,” Byrd said. “They were exposed by a family member and tested positive.”
Once a COVID-19 tests comes back positive, Byrd said the patient should be retested in two weeks. A second retest should come in another two weeks.
“They have to have two negative swabs before they can get back to work or in the community,” Byrd said.
“If they get diagnosed, they’re out of work for a month.”
Byrd said, in the Delta, the coronavirus has already hurt an impoverished community as it is the poorest region in the country. She added people are losing what few jobs there were, additional businesses and rural hospitals are closing and the area already has the highest rates of multiple chronic disease processes.
All of the patients Byrd has diagnosed have been middle aged or elderly. Children have been exposed to the virus, but none she has examined have tested positive. However, she said the elderly more easily exposed or vulnerable, have a lower immune system or chronic health problems.
“Some have had no health problems,” Byrd said. “Some have had high blood pressure or diabetes. All of mine have been African-American.”
Family nurse practitioner Dr. Mary Williams of Urgent & Primary Care Clinic of Clarksdale said nine of the 20 patients she tested came back positive with the coronavirus.
“They have been exposed or had a fever,” Williams said.
“Loss of appetite and taste, that’s a big one. A dry hacky cough, a fever. It’s not a high fever. It’s just a little higher than the body temperature.”
Williams said the patients feel fatigue and could have a fever with a temperature between 99.5 and 100.5.
“All nine that tested positive are all African-Americans,” Williams said. “We look at race, but the people working on the front lines are African-Americans. They’re the ones working at the service station. They’re the ones working at the grocery stores.”
Williams said when someone tests negative for the virus twice within a 24-hour period, it is OK to go back to work.
“It’s such a stigma when someone gets diagnosed with the virus when we know it’s worldwide,” Williams said. “It’s a pandemic. Therefore, we have to support, be more open about it and speak more about the virus. That way people are not afraid to get tested. Some people have the symptoms and won’t get tested because of the stigma related to it.”
Dr. Sheon Mendoza, a primary care physician at Aaron E. Henry Community Health Center, organized an effort to test patients in Clarksdale and other areas for free. Many of those results are expected to come back later in the week.
Mendoza said some of the symptoms are a fever, cough, chills, muscle aches and sore throat.
“There are so many people that are asymptomatic or the symptoms are so mild or so similar to something else,” he said. “This time of year, people get hay fever and hay fever symptoms are exactly the same. They can be if they’re really mild cases.”
He encouraged everyone who gets tested to proceed as though they have the virus until results come in.
Mendoza said the one of the biggest issues locally is the relationship between patients and physicians. He said he is calling patients on the phone to build a bridge and encourage them to get tested for the coronavirus.
“I think the biggest one is this community tends to not trust healthcare,” Mendoza said. “They don’t trust us. They don’t trust the doctors. They think that they’re being sold a bill of good and that they’re being misled. Because they feel like they’re being misled, they often avoid contact with the healthcare profession. As a result, they’re getting the symptoms and they’re not saying anything or they’re not seeing anyone and they’re stagnant before they realize that’s what’s going on.”
All three doctors agreed there is no cure for COVID-19 and it must run its course. They encouraged using hand sanitizer, gloves and washing hands and cleaning products with disinfectants.
While all three agreeing wearing a mask was a good idea, opinions on its benefits differed.
Mendoza and Byrd said masks prevent someone from infecting another person with COVID-19.
“I think what’s being said is true,” Mendoza said. “What’s being said is the mask doesn’t stop you from getting it from me. If you have on a mask, that’s to protect me from you, not to protect you from me. So my mask protects you and your mask protects me. I think people think, ‘I’ve got on a mask, so I can’t get it.’ It’s the exact opposite. I’ve got on a mask, so I can’t give it as well.”
Williams said masks can prevent others from getting COVID-19 and protect the individual wearing the mask at the same time. She said the correct way to wear the mask is to cover the entire mouth and nose.
“It’s a mute point if you don’t wear the mask correctly,” Williams said.
“You’re preventing from giving to someone else and you’re less likely to contract it from someone is if you have a mask on.”
Williams specifically said wearing a mask protects a person when someone else coughs and sneezes.
After someone living in a house is diagnosed with COVID-19, all three doctors said it is important to isolate themselves from the rest of the family.
“We test all the members in the household and tell them to social distance maybe isolate the person who has it from the family,” said Byrd, adding disinfectant spray should be used regularly in the house during that time.
The doctors also said anyone living alone should have others bring essential items to their door to keep them from exposing others.
“I had a couple of elderly people live alone,” Williams said. “This is where the churches and community support come into place.”
Williams recommended churches having community support groups and places to drop off items. She said some of her patients have had family members drop things off at their homes.
“Someone needs to call them every day a couple of times a day and check on them,” Williams said.
