How to prevent and treat COVID-19 infection in the elderly with chronic respiratory diseases? What should be done to appease and relieve the elderly's anxiety about COVID-19 infection? Li Yanming, director of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of Beijing Hospital, came to answer. How to treat the elderly with chronic respiratory diseases and how to prevent and treat COVID-19 with chronic respiratory diseases is a high risk factor for severe cases after COVID-19 infection. Therefore, the diagnosis and treatment of chronic respiratory diseases should be strengthened no matter whether it is not infected, in the process of infection, or after "Yangkang". The elderly with chronic respiratory diseases are similar to the general population in terms of the prevention of COVID-19 infection. However, if the respiratory system disease is very serious, the protective measures should be more strict. The elderly with chronic respiratory diseases must fully understand their health status, such as basic body temperature, basic blood pressure, basic heart rate, basic respiratory status, basic oxygen saturation status, etc. If they suffer from COVID-19 infection, this group of people should strengthen monitoring to evaluate their overall respiratory status, whether there is dyspnea, cough and sputum aggravation. If the body temperature has returned to normal, but the body temperature rises again, especially when the blood oxygen saturation decreases, you should seek medical advice in time. In addition, patients with chronic respiratory diseases are more likely to cough and expectoration than the general population after infection with COVID-19 or even after rehabilitation. Cough can be divided into two types. One is dry cough. People with asthma are prone to appear. At this time, medication should be used regularly and the dosage should be adjusted under the guidance of the doctor. The second is wet cough, which means that people who cough with phlegm, COPD and bronchiectasis may appear. At this time, phlegm is the main. In particular, the elderly are relatively weak, and their ability to expectorate will decline. Therefore, antitussive drugs should be used with caution. This group of people is also prone to secondary bacterial infection after being infected with COVID-19. The application of antibiotics is recommended to be carried out under the guidance of doctors. How to appease and relieve the elderly's anxiety about COVID-19 infection. After recovering from COVID-19 infection, there will be some symptoms. The respiratory symptoms are mainly cough, and the systemic symptoms are fatigue, poor appetite, poor sleep or sweating, which are relatively common. There is a Chinese saying that "disease comes as a mountain falls, and goes as a thread". Any disease has a process of occurrence, development, recovery and recovery. As long as the overall trend of symptoms is getting better, you need not worry too much. Elderly friends may experience anxiety after infection. What should we do? First, it can divert the attention of the elderly and encourage them to return to normal life. The second is to reduce the reception of information that can cause anxiety in the elderly, and reduce the number of elderly friends who are "seated". The third is to strengthen the company, communicate more, say more than once, try to use encouraging language in the way of communication, and don't use the blunt words "you're okay" and "you don't understand", which can't relieve the anxiety of the elderly. It can be said that "at your age, you can recover to this extent after infection, so your basic condition is still very good". To communicate with old friends in encouraging language can enhance his confidence in overcoming disease. (Xinhua News Agency)