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A new study, published in the renowned medical journal The Lancet Microbe, offers very interesting answers about the enigmatic and insidious coronavirus that has plagued the world for almost a year.
Espen Rostrup Nakstad of the Norwegian Health Directorate describes the study as “one of the most important general articles on the spread of the virus so far in the pandemic.”
The researchers have identified, reviewed, analyzed, and summarized the findings in all relevant research articles that have been published so far on the novel coronavirus.
The studies, which are part of the so-called meta-analysis, look at the infectivity and excretion of the virus in SARS-CoV-2 infection and compare the findings with established knowledge about the deadliest coronaviruses, SARS and MERS.
Early infectivity
One of the most important findings of the researchers is that patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection can secrete viruses for up to 83 days from the upper respiratory tract. In the lower respiratory tract and in the feces, the excretion of the virus can persist even longer.
This does not mean that a person shedding the virus is necessarily contagious.
According to the researchers, the live SARS-CoV-2 virus has never been detected in people infected beyond day 9 with symptoms.
INTERESTING: Health Espen Deputy Director Rostrup Nakstad describes the recent study as “one of the most important general articles on the spread of the virus so far in the pandemic.” Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB
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– The most important thing this systematic review article shows is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is excreted from the upper respiratory tract for an average of 17 full days, but no study has been able to detect live viruses more than nine days after outbreaks of the illness. This confirms the assumptions we made in Norway that you are highly contagious after being ill for just over a week, despite a positive coronary test, Deputy Health Director Espen Rostrup Nakstad tells Dagbladet.
Positive, but not contagious
The researchers emphasize that this means that repeated testing of patients with coronary heart disease has little to do with assessing whether they are still contagious.
– This means you can have a positive test for weeks without it being contagious. We have heard it on several occasions, says Nakstad.
According to the researchers behind the recent study, Covid-19 patients have by far the highest amount of virus in the first week after symptoms appear. Here, the new coronavirus differs from SARS and MERS.
In SARS, patients have the highest viral load 10 to 14 days after illness, and in MERS after 7 to 10 days of illness.
Nakstad finds the significant infectivity early in the covid-19 process very interesting.
– It shows a little why it is more difficult to fight this virus than SARS and MERS, he says.
– Unlike
Nakstad notes that the research article shows that the number of viruses in SARS-CoV-2 is highest in the first week of illness, up to day 5 of illness.
– This is in contrast to other more serious and deadly coronavirus infections, such as SARS and MERS, which had outbreaks in Asia in 2003 and 2012, respectively.
– In these diseases, as well as in Ebola virus disease, doctors experienced that patients generally became more and more contagious as they got sick, which may explain why these diseases did not spread so easily because the most of the patients were already isolated in hospital when they were most ill. contagious.
Nakstad further notes that with COVID-19 it appears that you are most contagious early in the development of the infection, even if you have no symptoms.
It also turns out that the amount of virus remains higher for a longer period of time in those who have symptoms.
– These findings corroborate that the rapid isolation of infectious agents is very important to control the spread of COVID-19. It also explains why it is so difficult to avoid infection in people who have few or no symptoms in the early stages of infection development, Nakstad says.
