The importance of asymptomatic people in the expansion of the coronavirus

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Coronavirus symptoms: when to go to the hospital? 1:58

(CNN Spanish) - One of the peculiarities of the coronavirus is that a person who is infected may not present any symptoms. These people are known as asymptomatic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 20% to 50% of those infected with the virus have no symptoms.

In this episode, Dr. Elmer Huerta talks about the implications of this group in the fight against covid-19.

You can listen to this episode on Spotify or your favorite podcast platform or read the transcript below.

Hello, I am Dr. Elmer Huerta and this is your daily dose of information about the new coronavirus, information that we hope will be useful to take care of your health and that of your family.

Today we will see the case of asymptomatic people and what is their importance in the control of covid-19.

Infectious diseases - those that are caused by pathogens like viruses, bacteria, fungi, or parasites - have what is called a natural history.

This is defined as the course that the disease follows since it enters the body, the symptoms it causes, the complications it can cause and the prognosis. That is, the possibilities that the person has to overcome or die from the infection.

In this sense, the natural history of covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, indicates so far that when the virus enters the nose, it begins to replicate and can cause symptoms on days 1 to 14. This is called the period. incubation. Symptoms most commonly begin between the fifth and sixth day after infection.

As we have heard in previous episodes, 81% of infected people do not develop symptoms or present them very slightly; 14% have them more severe and 5% tend to get complicated. The latter are the ones who make it to the hospital or worse, to the intensive care unit.

That said, it is very easy to recognize patients who have symptoms, because it is not only the person who realizes it, but also their family or those around them. These are the patients who come seeking help from doctor's offices or emergency rooms.

But what about asymptomatic patients? That is, those without symptoms, how many are there? How much do they contribute to the spread of the disease? Can they spread? Is it possible to discover them? And if this is so, how is it done?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20 to 50% of people infected with the virus are asymptomatic. In other words, they have no symptoms. Without a doubt, it is a high number.

Measles, for example, is a disease that can have asymptomatic cases, but they are not numerous, and when it occurs, the person rarely infects.

The fact that someone is infected but has no symptoms causes serious problems with covid-19 control, to the point that an editorial in the New England Medical Journal of April 24, 2020 describes asymptomatic people as the heel Achilles in the control of the disease.

For starters, having no symptoms not only gives the infected person a false sense of security, but also those around them. Everyone thinks she is healthy.

Knowing that it is very difficult to demonstrate the contagion produced by a symptomatic person, some studies have shown that during the presymptomatic stage - that is, before the symptoms - the person can spread because they already have the virus in their nose.

For example, a study published in the New England Medical Journal on April 24, 2020, exposes the case of a group of residents in a nursing specialty center who was tested. 56% of them tested positive for the virus initially, but showed no symptoms at that time; he developed them later, on an average of four days. During that time, they were able to infect others.

Having no symptoms, it is very difficult to discover the asymptomatic. The way in which they have been found - because they are very numerous - is through what is called the study of the contacts of a patient.

If a sick person, who tests positive for the virus, is asked about their contacts for the past few days, and each of them is interviewed and tested, it will be surprisingly discovered that people asymptomatic they can be many.

Another way to find them is to do serological tests, those that discover the antibodies generated after infection.

The fundamental fact that we all have to understand is that the use of a mask is essential to prevent an asymptomatic person from contagious.

Knowing that the virus can be spread even by the breath produced when speaking and if we all wear masks when we are surrounded by people, the possibility that we can spread being asymptomatic decreases enormously.

Similarly, maintaining a minimum distance of two meters from other people will also prevent an asymptomatic person from infecting us.

Send me your questions on Twitter, we will try to answer them in our next episodes. You can find me at @DrHuerta.

If you think this podcast is useful, please help others find it by rating and reviewing it in your favorite podcast app. We'll be back tomorrow so be sure to subscribe to get the latest episode on your account.

And for updated information, you can always contact CNNEspanol.com. Thanks for your attention.

If you have any questions, you can send them to Dr. Elmer Huerta on Twitter. You can also go to CNNE.com/coronaviruspodcast for all the episodes of our podcast “Coronavirus: Reality vs. fiction".