This Monday, Doctor Claude Rabatel manifested a great surprise when receiving the results of screening at Covid-19 of the Ehpad (Accommodation facility for dependent elderly) for which he is responsible. The tests carried out at the end of last week in this establishment, whose name he prefers to withhold, first confirmed the 25 suspected cases at Covid-19 of this structure located in Val-de-Marne.
Above all, the coordinating doctor had to resolve to note that 50 other residents developed a virus infection with no apparent symptoms and that 11 staff members were also infected. A shock for this seasoned professional who never would have imagined that, of the 110 residents of this nursing home, almost half are in the category of famous asymptomatic patients.
A “Covid light” unit
"This is a completely new fact for us," says the practitioner. Until now, residents who did not show symptoms have not been tested. This now allows us to isolate these asymptomatic people and observe them more carefully. This will also allow us to prevent the spread of the virus in the premises. "
To do it right, Doctor Claude Rabatel created a unit which he called "Covid Light" by isolating the 50 residents in one floor of the nursing home. It must be said that this retirement home has already paid a heavy price for the virus with 11 deaths in just over 48 hours. "It happened very suddenly and did not concern expected deaths," said the doctor.
"An amount of virus as large as symptomatic cases"
However, the first results of screenings organized in retirement homes document a very significant contamination and not always detected by professionals. At the Penvénan nursing home (Côtes-d'Armor) for example, tests carried out on April 15 revealed that 27 residents and 7 agents were positive. And a third of them are asymptomatic patients.
"I gather more and more information of this nature from doctors who care for Ehpad with a staggering percentage of people affected by the coronavirus, attests Professor Olivier Bouchaud, head of the infectious diseases department at the hospital Bobigny Avicenna. A fellow practitioner recently told me about an establishment he cares for where there have been 8 deaths out of 120 residents, and 70 people infected. "
Nothing very surprising when we know that healthy carriers of coronavirus represent between 30 and 50% of all cases positive for Covid-19 according to the various studies carried out around the world.
“There are approximately 2000 new cases of infected people per day in France ( Editor's note: 2667 new cases on April 21 and 1827 on April 22 ). But these are new cases identified, which means that there are many more if we consider the asymptomatic, announces the infectiologist Anne-Claude Crémieux. We also know that asymptomatic people can have as much virus as those who develop symptoms. "And therefore potentially be propagators of the virus in nursing homes or elsewhere.
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