As manifestation of the disease is less in a asymptomatic patient of COVID-19, so it can be assumed that the virus load is less in that person . Moreover the chance of transmission of virus through sneezing or coughing is practically less, the other ways are talking and exhalation. So can a asymptomatic patient of COVID-19 infect another person at the same rate and intensity as that of a symptomatic patient ?
The main way the disease spreads is through respiratory droplets expelled by someone who is coughing. The risk of catching COVID-19 from someone with no symptoms at all is very low.
An asymptomatic laboratory-confirmed case is a person infected with COVID-19 who does not develop symptoms. Asymptomatic transmission refers to transmission of the virus from a person, who does not develop symptoms.
There are few reports of laboratory-confirmed cases who are truly asymptomatic, and to date, there has been no documented asymptomatic transmission. This does not exclude the possibility that it may occur. Asymptomatic cases have been reported as part of contact tracing efforts in some countries. WHO regularly monitors all emerging evidence about this critical topic and will provide an update as more information becomes available.
As manifestation of the disease is less in a asymptomatic patient of COVID-19, so it can be assumed that the virus load is less in that person ?
It is multifactorial e.g. viral load, genetics, and health status of infected and also on the strain type.
So can a asymptomatic patient of COVID-19 infect another person at the same rate and intensity as that of a symptomatic patient ?
Yes, many cases catch the infection from asymptomatic patients especially in incubation period
Please , see following link:
Article Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from an Asymptomatic Con...
Go through the link you will get your doubt cleared,
https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30174-0/fulltext
Have a look on the article as well.
Thank you Nirmal Mohakud and Abdul Hadi Al-Qahtani for sharing these articles.
It depends on the health status of the person, age and if immunocompromised
I don't think you can say disease transmission is less in asymptomatic patients. The only argument might be that it shouldn't be greater so it must be less. But how much less. The reason some are symptomatic may not be that their virus load is less, but that they have better immunity. Of course that does help reduce virus load, but I will bet that most transmissions are due to asymptomatic patients only because they are sheltering less.
as the viral load in the asymptomatic carrier are less, disease transmission will be less.
Dr. Syage, I have a question. Is it possible to quantify the viral load ? Is there any method for such quantification ? If yes, it would definitely be a great help.
1. Understanding COVID-19: what does viral RNA load really mean?
- Gavin M Joynt
- William KK Wu
Published:March 27, 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30237-1
2. Francois-Xavier Lescure and co workers Case Series....
Hopefully, above references will be able to answer your yesterday’s new question upto some extent....
Despite the information released by WHO, the transmission by asymptomatics is the main reason why we are faced with a pandemic and not a geographically limited pathological wave.
Clearly, in a theoretical comparison, a symptomatic patient who coughs in front of a healthy person may more easily transmit the virus than an asymptomatic one. However, in the latter case, the time of exposure between two subjects could play a decisive role.
Please see the link below.
https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30250-2/pdf
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on the Covid-19 pandemic, made it very clear that the actual rates of asymptomatic transmission aren’t yet known.
In addition to the studies about asymptomatic transmission that Van Kerkhove referred to, the WHO has also received data from member countries that “suggests that asymptomatically-infected individuals are much less likely to transmit the virus than those who develop symptoms.”
SARS-CoV-2 transmission is not only possible but likely highest during pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic phases.
Article Asymptomatic transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic and i...
Please have a look at the following link:
Article Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from an Asymptomatic Con...
Also have a look at this useful link.
https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/asymptomatic-coronavirus-infections-contribute-to-over-50-percent-of-spread