These doctors explain what COVID-19 has in common with diseases we know how to manage ForbesFrontlines
Similarly, asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission is not unique to COVID-19. Other common viruses, such as influenza, demonstrate the ability to do this as well.Some physicians have been surprised that radiological signs of pneumonia are found frequently with COVID-19, even on patients who have no or few respiratory complaints. Again, this is not new. Any respiratory virus that affects the lungs to some degree may appear on chest x-rays and especially on more sensitive CT scans.
Infections with organisms such as Mycoplasma and Chlamidophyla are classic examples that lead to this phenomenon, though it is unclear if the pathway is similar for COVID-19. Patients like this with low oxygen levels will need supplemental oxygen to stave off the complete shutdown of the body due to oxygen deprivation. However, there is no evidence that doing so alters the path to respiratory failure caused by the pneumonia itself.
Even the tremendous variation in the way people are affected — some are completely asymptomatic or mild, while others end up on ventilators or die — is not unprecedented. No doubt, clinicians like us remain astounded when we see such a vast spectrum of illness in our patients, friends and families. But this is not new.
So what is new here? What is like nothing we have seen before? It is the concatenation of all these features in the same illness, as well as the degree of them. For example, when compared to influenza, the degree of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic spread may be far exceeded by COVID-19. The same goes for the severity of illness in vulnerable populations. All hospital-based physicians are used to the strain on their facilities during flu season, but not like this.
One might argue then that the virus’s natural transmission rate coupled with the frequency of the complications described above are the unique features of COVID-19. Yet, even then we have seen this before: 100 years ago with the Spanish flu. We are just too young to remember. As before, it is how we react that will dictate how much damage the pandemic inflicts on us. Fortunately another thing is the same: a virus has awakened a powerful force, human ingenuity.
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