A university from South Korea has published a study that suggests asymptomatic coronavirus or COVID-19 carriers are actually spreading the deadly novel virus at a much greater rate than earlier thought. Most people who contracted the novel virus have no detectable symptoms at all.
The WHO figures state that while five percent of the coronavirus infections are very serious, with the patients needing a ventilator for survival, around 80 percent of the cases are mild or asymptomatic and people having the virus can carry on with their lives without knowing anything.
The new study from the University of Ulsan College of Medicine in South Korea shows that the 'perfectly healthy' carriers of the virus can be as infectious as more dangerous cases. The study supported the earlier work done by a team led by the Jeffrey Shaman at Columbia University in New York who traced the original outbreak in Wuhan, China.
Asymptomatic COVID-19 Carriers Are Dangerous
The team of Sung Ham Kim at the University of Ulsan took the throat and the nose swabs of 39 people who tested positive for the virus but did not have any symptoms along with another 144 who had milf symptoms. All the volunteers had tested positive for the virus and 64 percent had the virus active in their nose and throat. But the viral load was virtually identical. For most of the other viruses, the amount of the load increases with the severity of the symptoms.
Lucy Thorne at University College London said, "Normally with a virus infection, the symptoms give a way for the virus to exit your body and spread," as reported by the Daily Star. "It seems from this and other studies that it's still possible to spread [Covid-19] when you don't have symptoms. I think the really strong public health message has to be that everyone has to take precautions even if they don't have symptoms," she told New Scientist.
She also mentioned that everyone must take precautions whether they have any symptoms or not. The deadly virus is currently spreading like wildfire. An effective vaccine is expected by the first quarter of 2021.
