This article shows that it is possible for a patient who recovered from the 2019-nCoV to still spread the virus several days after the symptoms are gone.
This happened in Germany recently and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Index Patient
An index patient is the one who is the source of an epidemic in a given locale. In this case, it was a Shanghai resident who visited Munich, Germany, on January 19 and 21. She did not have any symptoms when she had a business meeting with Patient 1 on January 20 and 21.
On her way back to China, she developed the symptoms and was diagnosed with the 2019-nCoV on January 26.
Patient 1
Patient 1 is a 33-year-old healthy German businessman. He had a meeting with the index patient on January 20 and 21. On January 24, he developed a sore throat, chills, and muscle pains. The following day, a fever of 39.1°C (102.4°F) started, along with a productive cough. By the evening of the next day, he started feeling better and went back to work on January 27.
On January 27, the index patient called Germany to inform them that she was diagnosed with the 2010-nCoV.
Contact Tracing
After she told them of her diagnosis, a search for all the known contacts of the index patient was done.
Patient 1, at that time, was already feeling well and had no symptoms. He reported no previous or chronic illnesses and had no history of foreign travel within 14 days before the onset of symptoms. Tests for the 2019-nCoV was done from the nose and sputum of Patient 1. The test is a quantitative reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction (qRT-PCR) assay.
The test result revealed a high viral load of 108 copies per milliliter in his sputum during the following days, with the last available result on January 29.
That is 100,000,000 viruses per milliliter! The virus was still present after the symptoms of Patient 1 are gone.
More Patients
Three more were tested positive for nCoV. Patient 2 had contact with the index patient. Patients 3 and 4 have contact only with Patient 1. All these cases show human to human transmission.
Following the health authorities, all the patients with confirmed 2019-nCoV infection were admitted to a Munich infectious disease unit for clinical monitoring and isolation. As of printing, they do not have any signs of severe illness.
Take-Away New Information about the 2019-nCoV
- Most patients recover from 2019-nCoV.
- Patients with no to very mild symptoms can spread the disease.
- Patients who recover from the illness still have the virus in their system and can even potentially spread the virus several days after the symptoms
Source: South China Morning Post
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Reference:
Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from an Asymptomatic Contact in Germany. Letter to the Editor. January 30, 2020, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2001468
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