#SpreadPositivity: Over 100,000 COVID-19 Patients Globally Have Recovered Successfully
Coronavirus is one of the scariest things to have happened to the world in several years. With the number as high as 350,000 of infected ones and around 15,000 who succumbed to the new coronavirus, it must not be taken lightly. We are all hearing stories of someone somebody knows who caught it. COVID-19 is closer than we thought it is. And the consequent social distancing and lockdown are difficult, to say the least. But it’s required and we are all using a little humour and unproductive Instagram scrolling to get through it.
But today is not about cribbing at all. Today is about feeling hopeful because the number of people having recovered from COVID-19 had crossed 100,000 yesterday! That’s almost one third of the people who got infected. Only if we reduce the spike in number of patients, we will be able to get out of this really soon.
In fact, while three COVID-19 patients in Kerala got cured in February, 11 out of 14 Italians diagnosed with the disease recovered and left the isolation ward on 4th March. The total number of those cured in India is 33.
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So how do the doctors decide that the patient has recovered? “Patients are declared recovered if they have no fever without medication for three days, have no symptoms of coughing and shortness of breath for a full week after the symptoms first appeared, and test negative for Covid-19 tests on two consecutive days, and only then are they allowed to leave isolation and resume contact with other people,” said Dr Yatin Mehta, chairman, Medanta Institute of Critical Care and Anaesthesiology, Medanta-The Medicity, as reported by Hindustan Times.
However, in severely ill patients, the symptoms can persist. A few physicians in China found the virus in the patient’s body even after two weeks. However, a research from Germany says when the symptoms are mild the person becomes non-infective after 10 days of having those.
But do these patients develop immunity to the disease once they are cured? We can’t tell for sure because reports suggest a woman in Japan caught it for the second time after being discharged.
“Vaccine development is possible because antibodies are able to protect against infection, we need an antibody response for the vaccine to be active at all. The Covid-19 test, RT-PCR, is highly sensitive but it can throwup a false negative if the swab sample is, say, being taken from the throat when the infection is in the lungs,” said Dr Lalit Kant, former head of epidemiology and communicable disease, Indian Council of Medical Research.
However, he further added, “So if infection is indeed happening there is no point in developing a vaccine. We know from earlier coronaviruses infections like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that the disease gives short-lived immunity up to three years, but we don’t have enough information about the new virus to make a prediction.”
ALSO READ: This Spanish Couple Got Married On Their Balcony As Their Neighbours Attended Through Theirs. This Is Love In Times Of Coronavirus.
Well, we trust the medical force of our country and the world to do what they do best. Meanwhile, stay home, stay safe and be happy a little for the people who recovered.
