We are learning every day and our knowledge about corona
is changing every day
Infected people without symptoms might be driving the
spread of coronavirus more than we realized?
Dr K K Aggarwal
President CMAAO, HCFI and Past national President IMA
New studies and a large coronavirus outbreak in
Massachusetts bring into question reassuring assertions by US officials about
the way the novel virus spreads.
So far, emphasis has been that the virus is spread mainly by
people who are already showing symptoms, such as fever, cough or difficulty
breathing. But it appears that a Massachusetts coronavirus cluster with at
least 82 cases was started by people who were not yet showing symptoms, and
more than half a dozen studies have shown that people without symptoms are
causing substantial amounts of infection.
WHO has so far emphasized that asymptomatic transmission can
happen, but have said that it's not a significant factor in the spread of the
virus.
Let’s see opinions
1.
CDC says "Some spread might be possible
before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this occurring with
this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus
spreads,"
2.
Coronavirus
response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, seemed to strike a somewhat different
note on asymptomatic transmission “ She said they're trying to understand
people under the age of 20 who don't have "significant symptoms" --
"Are they a group that are potentially asymptomatic and spreading the virus?"
3.
"We
now know that asymptomatic transmission likely [plays] an important role in
spreading this virus,": Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for
Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
4.
In an
article two weeks ago in the New England Journal of Medicine, Bill Gates,
co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, expressed concern about the
spread of the disease by people who haven't yet developed symptoms, or who are
only a bit sick.
"There
is also strong evidence that it can be transmitted by people who are just
mildly ill or even pre-symptomatic. That means COVID-19 will be much harder to
contain than the Middle East respiratory syndrome or severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS), which were spread much less efficiently and only by
symptomatic people,"
5.
"Asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic
transmission are a major factor in transmission for Covid-19,": Dr.
William Schaffner, a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and
long-time adviser to the CDC.
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