Patients With Coronavirus Might Be Contagious For Another 8 Days
Researchers from the Treatment Center of PLA General Hospital in Beijing supervised 16 coronavirus patients and their conclusions are fearsome: all the former patients continued to carry the virus eight days after showing no symptom, thus being considered cured. The patients’ median age was of 35.5 years and they were all mild cases of coronavirus. This raises questions on the older and/or severe patients. They might continue to carry the virus for longer periods.
The implications of the discovery are worrisome by questioning the duration of the quarantine considered enough for people to stop being contagious. For three months all those in quarantine were kept there for two weeks. But now it looks like the period was at least one week shorter. The virus needs 5 days to show symptoms (if it does) and seven days to follow its course. By adding the 8 days mild patients still carrying the virus, take the quarantine closer to three weeks.
The Coronavirus Patients Are Contagious For More Than A Week After They’re Cured
It is still not yet known if those eight days as a carrier makes on contagious too. Further studies are necessary to establish that. But the risk for it to be so is very high. If it proves to be so, then this might explain the velocity of the spread, and also the high number of medical staff being infected. Making contact with patients believed to be cured when, in fact, they aren’t is great exposure.
“COVID-19 patients can be infectious even after their symptomatic recovery, so treat the asymptomatic/recently recovered patients as carefully as symptomatic patients,” warns the study.
Given that there is still too much unknown, Professor Lixin Xie, MD at the College of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing advises people showing mild symptoms of coronavirus to stay home in quarantine for another two weeks after the symptoms have passed.
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.
0 comments