The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English) rectified this Friday its controversial guide from the end of August in which it said that people exposed to the contagion of coronavirus who did not present symptoms did not need a test to know if they had sick.
With its new update, known this Friday, it is indicated that "carrying out a test
is recommended for those close contacts of a person who has the infection
", whether or not they have symptoms.
[The coronavirus has other symptoms besides fever and cough. And it can be spread without feeling sick]
"Because asymptomatic people can potentially transmit the disease, it
is important that the contacts of a person with COVID-19 are quickly identified,
" adds the CDC.
The change in the recommendations comes a day after The New York Times reported that
the previous recommendation
, now rectified, was not written by CDC experts but by officials from the Department of Health (HHS, in English) , and that it was published despite scientific questioning about it.
"That was a document that came from the top of HHS and from the White House pandemic response team," a federal official told the newspaper, "that policy does not reflect what many people at the CDC believe should be recommended. ".
The Administration pressed the CDC to modify the recommendations on who should not be tested for COVID-19
Aug. 27, 202001: 06
Several studies have shown that asymptomatic people can spread the infection without knowing it.
And the World Health Organization has emphatically repeated the importance of testing these people in order to cut the chain of transmission.
[WHO retracts after saying that asymptomatic people have a "low risk" of spreading COVID-19]
Asymptomatic patients are one of the headaches for doctors.
The United States has more than 2.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases, but there are likely to be more.
According to the CDC, for every case reported in the United States there could be another 10 infected people.