For doctors on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, concerns about “stealth spreaders” — individuals who contract the virus without symptoms — are growing.
The availability of coronavirus testing in the U.S. has increased significantly in the last week— so too, as predicted, have the number of confirmed cases. According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. reported just over 3,500 COVID-19 cases at the start of the week; by Wednesday the number had more than doubled to 7,300.
Shaman says that stealth transmissions — as this phenomenon is called — may continue to pose a “major challenge” to the containment of the coronavirus worldwide. To be clear, much more research is needed to determine what percentage of COVID-19 patients in the U.S. are not exhibiting symptoms, and how that may impact the way in which the virus spreads.
Having no symptoms doesn’t mean your body isn’t fighting the virusPetri says that there isn’t one mechanism behind catching a virus without symptoms — meaning, it could either be the body ignoring the virus altogether or fighting it off quietly without causing negative reactions in the body. In this outbreak, he suspects it’s the latter.
Measuring the number of stealth transmissions requires more testsTesting has been a major issue in the U.S. from the beginning of the outbreak, with the CDC reporting just 77 tests performed last week, one of the first weeks the test was widely available. While testing has now increased nationwide, in order to find cases in which people are not exhibiting symptoms, Petri says you’d need even more.
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