How the AMOUNT of the coronavirus you get infected with could decide whether you suffer mild or severe symptoms

MAILONLINE ^ | 30 March 2020 | SAM BLANCHARD SENIOR HEALTH REPORTER

[dennisw]

A study on COVID-19 patients in China links high viral load to worse symptoms

Viral load is the amount of a virus inside someone's body during infection

As well as reducing the risk of coronavirus spreading social distancing could make people's symptoms milder if they do get the illness, scientists say.

It can do this by reducing a patient's viral load - the number of particles of the virus they are first infected with.

Having a high viral load gives an infection a 'jump start' and raises the risk of a patient's immune system becoming overloaded in its battle against COVID-19.

People can slash their chances of a massive initial infection by staying away from others who might be ill and by sticking strictly to rules against close personal contact which millions of people around the world are faced with.

Someone infected indirectly by touching a door handle could ultimately end up with milder symptoms than someone who inhales an infected person's cough, experts say.

And this is because it gives the immune system more time to get a handle on the infection before it gets overwhelmed and symptoms start to show.

'In general with respiratory viruses, the outcome of infection – whether you get severely ill or only get a mild cold – can sometimes be determined by how much virus actually got into your body and started the infection off,' says Professor Wendy Barclay, an infectious diseases expert. .

'It’s all about the size of the armies on each side of the battle, a very large virus army is difficult for our immune system's army to fight off.'

The way viruses make people ill is by multiplying rapidly once inside the body and building up in such large numbers that the body takes weeks to destroy them all.

[dennisw]

As a layman this all looks true to me. This is the difference between being smacked with a hammer or a sledge hammer.

[Aaron0617]

Makes sense, me making slight contact with the virus and a limited reaction vs a doctor being fully exposed. For instance 12 doctors have died in the Philippines so far.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/03/29/20/philippines-loses-12-doctors-to-covid-19-group

[I want the USA back]

Seems true to me.

[Wuli]

Makes since.

And it reinforces the need for isolation and separation of those who test positive or are developing symptoms or are ill, their separation from all who are well, so that the healthy do not have to be isolated from the healthy, and by healthy I mean those who have contracted the virus and are recovered and no longer testing positive.

[ripnbang]

Duh....

[null and void]

It reinforces the need for face masks. If the mask "only" stops most of the initial viral load from a sneeze, that by itself, could be the difference between life and death.

[freebird5850]

Just about every day my fever spikes to 102 and then subsides. Normal appetite but some lower gastro due to taking 500 mg of azrithomyacin.

[Rio]

A bunch of geniuses, these folks are!

[Wuli]

“It reinforces the need for face masks. If the mask “only” stops most of the initial viral load from a sneeze, that by itself, could be the difference between life and death. “

Most particularly and most importantly for the ill who are not hospitalized and for health care workers.

[RummyChick]

And how many times did CDC say you didnt need to wear a mask..and we here said..lessen the viral load. Their recommendation made no sense.

I remember a Dr here..and i cant remember his name..kept saying over and over again -lessen the viral load.

Wish I could remember that guys alias.

[KarlInOhio]

One (I wish I could remember his name and what show he was on so I could publicly shame him) said that wearing a mask could even make it worse for you.

[Cold Heart]

This is not only true for the individual but also countries or communities. President Trump stopping flights lessoned the initial loading on the US.

Large cities that received a lot of travelers with the infection had swift increases. Also Louisiana with Mardi Gras mayor.

Our rural coastal Oregon communities had no cases until that one weekend where tourists who were told to self quarantine in Washington or Portland decided they could inundate the coastal communities.

We now have health care workers infected, health facilities closed and additional cases rising daily.

[RummyChick]

I cant find the name of the Dr that was giving pretty strong warnings about viral load...but did see this from the beginning of the month

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I have a colleague who was in Hong Kong during SARS. She says the women there are sewing masks now. Apparently according to her friends there the government is only giving out 2 masks per week.

So while we here think they have all the masks...they don’t. They get 2 per week.

There are patterns available online how to make a mask. Once you understand it is about reducing the viral load you will recognize the limitations of whatever PPE you have.

A properly fitting surgical mask has the ability to reduce the viral load by 80%. A n-95 mask is shown to only reduce the load 90-95%. 10% difference.

663 posted on 3/3/2020, 6:41:43 AM by EBH (DNC=Party NON GRATA)
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[RummyChick]

and btw, whoever that Dr is on this site.....I would like to thank him for helping me to take this seriously and to get prepared for what was inevitably coming.

[Tired of Taxes]

Hope you recover fully soon. God bless...

[freebird5850]

Thanks. It’s a dread I tell ya. The sweats force me to change all clothing, shower then nap in my recliner.

[Justa]

“Most particularly and most importantly for the ill who are not hospitalized and for health care workers.”

It’s a SARS. Everybody needs to wear a face mask.

This type of thinking is why SARS-2 spread so quickly in the West but not Korea or Japan. They know from SARS-1 in 2000 that people are contagious days or weeks before showing symptoms. This is why EVERYONE wears a face mask in those countries, from door to door. They figured this out twenty years ago.

Eventually, when there are enough for everyone to have a 50 day supply the MSM will be screaming “facemasks” 24/7. Or possibly not to maintain their Katrina blame-the-Republican-President narration. I never wait on the MSM to decide what is right.

[Reverend Wright]

I think this could explai New York and Northern Italy where people are packed in close, and once the virus is circulating you continually get re-exposed and re-exposed and re-exposed, until you get overloaded and really sick.

[dennisw]

The CDC can go straight to HELL!!
The CDC has been so useless and so awful that I would not be surprised that some there are plotting to ruin Trump’s re-election chances. CDC totally booted getting out proper virus test kits. The first round of kits sent out were defective. Plus the idiots there tried to monopolize all analysis of virus tests. Doctors having to mail the completed test kits to CDC in Atlanta made the turn around time 7-10 days.
CDC delayed proper virus testing by about 6 weeks.

Finally Trump nuked these dopes. Stripped away CDC regulations so that the private sector and pharma could invent and distribute their own corona virus test kits. Kits that will give test results much quicker. Even universities like Stanford came up with excellent test kits.

Plus Trump and his people made sure that quickie test processing can be done all over America by private businesses such as Lab Corp
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