Post-COVID Viral Transmission Rare, Even With Positive Test

FRIDAY, April 23, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Isolated NBA gamers who recovered from COVID-19 but nevertheless tested favourable for the virus failed to infect many others soon after leaving isolation, a new study finds.

That a person who has experienced COVID can infect many others has been a persistent panic, but these findings from the qualified basketball league recommend that many who get well can return to speak to with many others without having spreading the virus, scientists say.

“COVID-19 reinfection is feasible, in particular now with new variants, and each favourable exam ought to be taken critically,” said lead researcher Christina Mack of IQVIA, Authentic Globe Methods in Durham, N.C.

This 2020 study, however, showed that delicate exams this kind of as RT-PCR could continue to yield a favourable consequence soon after men and women have recovered from COVID. In the NBA campus environment, however, people individuals were not infectious, Mack said.

To total the 2019-20 season, the NBA set up a “bubble” in Orlando, Fla. — a closed campus ruled by scientific protocols to guard in opposition to COVID-19.

Much more than three,five hundred men and women lived on the campus and were matter to its protocols. All experienced every day RT-PCR exams. Some experienced recovered from a earlier COVID infection.

“These recovered people were not unwell and were not observed to be infectious to many others, but were as an alternative shedding virus particles at a reduced stage left in excess of from their earlier infection,” Mack said.

“We observed that people could exam favourable up to 118 days soon after onset of infection, and that once again, many of these people experienced tested unfavorable on most of the days bordering their favourable exam or exams,” she said.

Among members, one% experienced persistent virus, most were young than thirty and male. Antibodies were uncovered in 92% of these persistent circumstances and all were asymptomatic. These men and women were monitored, and there was no transmission of the virus to many others, the scientists documented.

Dr. Robert Glatter, an unexpected emergency health practitioner at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York Metropolis, wasn’t aspect of the study but reviewed the findings.

“The effects of the study assist the premise that asymptomatic people who have satisfied [U.S. Facilities for Disorder Command and Prevention] criteria for discontinuation of isolation, but who have persistently favourable RT-PCR exam effects, do not look to be infectious to many others,” he said.

This is an significant obtaining and can assistance acquire an tactic to college and substantial college athletics that is harmless for gamers and athletic workers, Glatter said.

“The study also illustrates that a PCR exam requirements to have the degree of infectiousness hooked up in buy to genuinely make an precise evaluation of COVID position and chance to many others in the group,” he added.

Men and women whose infection values are substantial could have remnants of viral RNA but are not infectious and do not pose a chance to many others, even with shut speak to as found in the study, Glatter said.

Even though PCR testing is the most precise, he said rapid antigen exams could be a superior choice for gauging how infectious a person who recovered from COVID may possibly be.

“Speedy antigen exams can be a worthwhile tactic to detect an infection, since their utility will increase with repetition, producing them pretty valuable from a public wellness standpoint,” Glatter said.

The study was published on-line April 22 in the journal JAMA Internal Medication.

Much more information

For far more on COVID-19, see the U.S. Facilities for Disorder Command and Prevention.

Sources: Christina Mack, PhD, MSPH, IQVIA, Authentic Globe Methods, Durham, N.C. Robert Glatter, MD, unexpected emergency health practitioner, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York Metropolis JAMA Internal Medication, April 22, 2021, on-line