Asymptomatic Carriers are the main cause of concern in our society. Image Courtesy – Health Magazine
Danger of spreading coronavirus is increasing gradually in our society. Many corona patients cannot be recognized because they have no symptoms. These patients are the cause of concern if there are no symptoms or slight symptoms.
The experts explained how the virus is silently nesting in the human body:
Patients with coronavirus and no symptoms are most likely the highly infectious people in our society. Such patients are called ‘silent carriers’ or ‘asymptomatic carriers’. Such Covid-19 patients are at risk of spreading the infection at the social or group level.
In Europe and America, the number of patients with such ‘asymptomatic carriers’ is increasing. One such study was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. Doctors at a nursing home there told that most of the residents in and around the nursing home had no symptoms. But they were COVID-19 positive. Initially, these patients could not be identified. Later in the rapid test, it was possible to identify some of them. Symptoms of infection in some of the others came much later. The rapid test showed that the virus has been lodged into the body for a long time and the infection has also penetrated very deep.
As there are asymptomatic patients, there are also patients with symptoms of common cold and fever in our society. This ‘mild-symptom’ is another reason for fear. Scientists told in a medical journal named ‘Emerging Infectious Disease’ that five families came in contact with a doctor in Wuhan who had very common symptoms. The families also got infected and what was more astonishing was that all the infected people were also asymptomatic.
Read: Virologist Peter Kolchinsky explains Covid-19 as intelligent enemy
If any infectious germ enters into the body and starts infecting the body cells, a reaction is also seen automatically in the body. For an example, if a flu virus enters into a human body, the patient will be suffered from cold-cough, fever or pneumonia. It can be easily understood what kind of infection has spread in the patient’s body by observing these symptoms. The treatment can be started then accordingly.
Specific symptoms were also seen in patients during SARS or Mars virus infection. But the deadly virus SARS-COV-2 has altered its gene structure in such a way that outward manifestation of the viral infection remains negligible or non-existent in many cases.
These asymptomatic patients are dangerous because they themselves do not understand when they have been infected; and as any symptom has not appeared, the infection continues to spread at a massive rate.
It is impossible to detect who is infected and who is not among the people around. Actually we do not get time to be alert. It is impossible to predict when the virus will enter the body. Scientists say that most of the infected people are asymptomatic. As a result of this, the virus is silently spreading from one body to another.
Symptoms appear when the infection is reaching its final stage, such as the virus spreading to the lungs, liver, kidneys or heart. A sudden heart attack, renal failure, lung infection, oesophagal infection happens at the final stage. But, by then the virus has taken over the cells in such a way that the body can no longer build up its resistance. That is the main reason why the patients cannot be saved with the help of ventilator support or other possible therapies at the last stage.
