You might be infected with corona virus without even knowing it. Yes, you read that right! It has been suggested by various researches that upto 25% of the infected people may not show any symptoms for a long period of time. These people may be called ‘Silent Spreaders’. And this explains the ever increasing count of the infected patients, because many are affected and yet asymptomatic.
At the onset of COVID-19, it was believed that the primary mode of transmission occurred when an infected person showed symptoms like cough, fever, sneezing, fatigue, sore throat. But later on the researchers proved that these ‘silent spreaders’ can transmit the virus to other without showing any of these symptoms.
Asymptomatic, presymptomatic and very mildly symptomatic are the three categories in which the ‘silent spreaders’ can be divided. Let us tell you briefly about each of these categories so that we can understand how many people fit in these categories and how.
ASYMPTOMATIC: The people who never develop any symptoms falls under this category. No fever, no respiratory problems, no breathing problems, nothing at all. And even after they have been tested positive for COVID-19, they continue to show no signs. Most of the cases tested positive indicated that these people came in contact with already infected people and infect far more number of people because of the lack of signs. As you may understand, it is difficult to fight a disease without even knowing its existence and hence this category of patients prove to be the biggest challenge against preventing community spread of COVID-19.
PRESYMPTOMATIC: People who have been infected and are already incubating the virus, but have not shown any symptoms yet, fall under this category. Presymptomatic phase is the time duration between when a person catches the virus and when he starts to show the symptoms. It may take 5-6 days in some and even two weeks in others. Presymptomatic is a more common category than asymptomatic because around 75% of the people who tested positive without showing any signs turned out to be presymptomatic, who show symptoms like cough, fever, respiratory problems in their later follow up exams. These people too can definitely transmit the virus to all who come in their contact. Most worrisome thing in these two categories is that the infected ones are not incubated or quarantined because they do not show any signs and hence their family, friends, colleagues all remain in a risk zone.
VERY MILDLY SYMPTOMATIC: The last category is of people who show very mild symptoms. They feel a little unwell being affected by COVID-19 but are also not incubated and continue to stay in close contact with others risking them too. This does not count in silent spreading because there are a few signs, however mild, but they are there. Like a mild fever, cough or sore throat. But if such people continue to be going to public places, they will keep on transmitting the virus to others.
So, these are the categories we can put the infected people into but the question that is important is how many asymptomatic, presymptomatic or mildly symptomatic people are still out there who have not been tested and incubated. Because they will become the root cause of COVID-19 community spread.
And therefore, what you can do to keep yourself and your near and dear ones safe is stay home and wear mask and gloves if going out. Keep washing your hands, avoid touching your face, practise social distancing. Do not medicate yourself, take online consultations and if symptoms are severe, go for COVID-19 testing.
Stay home, stay safe.
