The Daily Dose With Dr Suhayl Essa

As many politicians and radio personalities weigh in on what they  believe the citizens of South Africa feel about a gradual reopening of  the country versus ending the lockdown immediately, Dr Essa gives his  opinion on the matter.

With the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan amidst a nationwide lockdown, tensions are expected to rise within the muslim community when it comes practicing their faith. Around the globe during this month muslims refrain from eating, drinking or any sexual activity with their partners as well as congregate in prayer and charity. This becomes difficult under our current restrictions. A group of congregants were recently arrested sparking a war on social media. Dr Essa shares his opinion. 

At a time when live entertainment is restricted comedians have turned to social media to engage with their audience. As a comedian himself Dr Essa is intrigued by Donovan Goliath's crisp, eye-catching content that aims to spread laughter and awareness about Covid-19 disease. During these uncertain times, as an entertainer, Donovan advises us all to adapt to an emerging form of entertainment and allow our creativity to run wild at a time when we are unable to do so physically.

Dr  Ashlyn Job, a medical officer with an interest in Paediatrics, tested  positive for Covid-19 only two weeks after the first positive case in  South Africa. She describes her experience falling ill, initially being  in denial, testing for Covid-19 and subsequently self-isolating in her  bedroom for 14 days whilst treating herself. This provides us all with  insight into living with the disease, staying positive and remaining  hopeful in the fight.

After falling ill Dr Essa gets tested for Covid-19 and provides not only his experience but also the criteria for being tested as well as what to expect. The results may surprise you.

In this episode listeners get an inside scoop from an ex-journalist turned stand-up comedian on Covid-19 in South Africa and what we can expect. Carvin Goldstone discusses strategies for income generation for comedians and after stacks of data analysis he gives us predictions on what's to come. Being a fellow stand-up comedian you can expect some hearty laughs with this one. 

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Preventative measures and vaccines for Covi-19 were broken down by Dr Suhayl. He also discusses the term ' Herd Immunity ' which means; the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population that results if a sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune to the disease, especially through vaccination. 

The lockdown has been extended for another 2 weeks. Dr Essa discusses what to expect and how we can make sure it's effective. Is it a good idea to keep this going?

Dr Nhlanhla Vilakazi: a pro-bodybuilder, Family Medicine Physician Registrar and close friend of Dr Essa discusses his fitness routine and maintaining a regular, healthy diet under the lockdown whilst fighting on the frontline in the public healthcare sector.

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Dr Suhayl Essa was joined in  studio by Fasiha Hassan who is currently the youngest member of the Provincial Legislature in Gauteng. They were discussing the lockdown and policies within. Some of the other topics that were touched how the government had put a lot of consideration on how to the lockdown into effect, and what measures were put into place to assist those who will be most affected by the lockdown. 

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Under the current lockdown a proportion of our citizens are still not convinced that this is something they will never be affected by. Restrictions are being violated for practical and impractical reason. But are these measures going to be enough to flatten the curve and curb the spread of this disease? In this episode Dr. Essa explains why he thinks the lockdown hasn't been entirely effective. We could possibly see a rise in the number of people who have contracted with the virus in the near future.

The taxi industry has threatened to completely shutdown the country if government does not make provisions to keep their business fully operational. The question that arises: Should taxis be considered as an essential service?After all they are a transporting essential workers right? Other than the taxi industry there are other industries that have taken a huge knock: restaurants, clubs, gyms and small businesses.

Dr Essa discusses the harsh reality of a lockdown extension and the consequences thereof; what’s your take?

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Dr Essa spent time doing research on finding out where the coronavirus originates from and in doing so he found an article that focuses on the origin and the spread of the virus on a genetic level. The study was conducted by two clinical microbiologist who specialized in virology.

The main purposes of the research was to find exactly which animal or host the virus originates from and track the DNA of that virus and also track the DNA of the coronavirus. The studies have shown that there is over 200 coronaviruses in the world and none of them have been found in humans but only in animals, the specific one that has been closely related to humans has been found in bats, the type of bat species are called ' Rhinolophus bat ' that were found in a cage One Thousand Five Hundred kilometers away from the epicenter of the the outbreak which is in the city of Wuhan located in South-west of China.

Conspiracy theorists are saying that the virus can be spread via 5G (high speed internet ) whilst others believe that the Chinese create it in a lab somewhere near Wuhan so that they can collapse the world economy thus becoming superpowers. The reality is; the virus is here and we have to face it.

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The battle between science and religion continues, and in this episode we focus on both of them from a different perspective. Nature was created to be self sustaining and in science there is a term  called " Carrying Capacity " which refers to the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain, given the food, habitat, water and other necessities available in the environment. The advancement of science and medicine enables us to live longer and in doing so puts a strain on The Earth which makes it difficult for continue sustaining itself.

During this testing time religion would say; " your faith is being tested " different religion groups have different practices but they also all serve the same purpose. So during these testing times engage in prayer and be grateful for what you have and always remember that " prayer without faith " is like a car without petrol. 

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The question is what is social distancing; well it is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures taken to prevent the spread of a contagious disease by maintaining a physical distance between people and reducing the number of times people come into close contact with each other. Social distancing in real life entails keeping a distance of 2 meters between each other which is also equivalent to the space of 1 person between two people.

Measures such as; The banning of mass gathers, closure of schools, companies working from home and a 21 day lock down. All these measures a put into place in efforts to flatten the curve and try to curb the virus from spreading.  

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The biggest question on everyone's lips: is there a cure for the virus? Research has been conducted and currently there is no cure. However, a few theories have been going around about the virus not thriving under hot temperatures and that you can “prevent” yourself from getting Covid19 by indulging in hot beverages or home made influenza remedies. A number of other drugs have been put into test in the pharmaceutical field. The drugs that have been put to trial on animal studies have been completely unsuccessful.

ARV’s have also been put forward for testing in South Korea and some patients have recovered from mild to moderate symptoms of the Covid-19 virus. Monoclonal antibodies are also in contention to be one of the treatments for the virus mainly because it sends in “clonal soldiers” to assist your immune system in fighting off the virus.

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There are multiple reasons and ways of testing for the virus. Dr Essa identifies some of the possible reasons such as tracking of the disease, contact tracing, medical statistics, and flattening the curve.

The story of " Patient 31 " who was a young lady that was tracked in South Korea because of her travelling history who was then found positive for CoVid-19 and was also held responsible for 60% of the spread of the virus in South Korea. The Corona virus is a RNA virus (Ribonucleic virus) and the test is done by placing the virus in an ideal environment for it to replicate and if it does you have the virus.

Asymptomatic patients (those who don't exhibit symptoms but are actually carriers of the virus) may come in contact with other human beings which makes testing and tracing quite tricky.

- On this prescription will be discussing the measures you should take to protection yourself during this pandemic that we are currently being faced with.

- And why people take stock-pilling as a survival tactic 

Based on what's currently happening in the country has the President Cyril Ramaphosa done the right thing by implementing a 21 days shutdown ?

A prescribed dosage of what Doctor and Comedian Suhayl Essa has for us during Quarantine