Finishing | Huang Qingchun

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Today, the news that “asymptomatic infected persons may become the source of infection” has caused a small panic in the circle of friends, which originated from yesterday’s (2 May 5) A notice formally issued by the National Health Commission.

On February 5, the General Office of the National Health Commission formally issued a “Pneumonitis Diagnosis and Treatment Plan for Printing and Distributing New Coronavirus Infection (Trial version 5) “ (hereinafter referred to as the fifth version plan) .

The fifth version of the official announcement is different from the previous version circulating on the Internet. It has specifically supplemented and revised the drugs, sources of infection and susceptible people for new coronary pneumonia.

It not only changed the source of infection to “patients currently seeing infection mainly as new coronavirus infections”, but also proposed for the first time that “asymptomatic infections may also become sources of infection.”

Picture source: New coronavirus-infected pneumonia diagnosis and treatment program (trial version 5)

Why do people panic about “asymptomatic infection”?

According to the confirmed cases, none of the asymptomatic patients have clinical symptoms, but the pathogenic test of the new coronavirus in respiratory specimens is positive.

In popular terms, this part of the patients have no obvious clinical manifestations such as fever, fatigue, and pneumonia, but they carry the virus on their own and do not even become ill, and they do not even know that they are sick, but they can inadvertently spread the virus to others .

Anyang, Henan, a woman returning home to Wuhan has no symptoms for two weeks after returning home, but her five relatives have been diagnosed with pneumococcal infection.

In fact, more than ten days ago, the Hangzhou Daily reported a case of suspected “asymptomatic infection”:

On January 25, according to the Hangzhou Daily, Professor Sheng Jifang, the director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, and a member of the Zhejiang Provincial Diagnosis and Treatment of New Coronavirus Infection Pneumonia Group, received one patient from the case. I went to Hangzhou from Wuhan to attend the meeting. When I arrived in Hangzhou, I had no symptoms, no cough, and no fever. But it didn’t take long for a few colleagues he had contacted to develop symptoms. At this time, he still did not develop the disease. He did not develop the disease until 2 days after returning to Wuhan.

On January 29, Lin Bingliang, deputy director of the infection department of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, said in an interview with the Health Times:

“We also encountered a patient recently. No matter how he asked, he could n’t ask about his epidemiological history. He finally asked it many times before, because he had a colleague from Wuhan in early January. I came back to understand this. But the colleague of the patient had no symptoms of the new coronavirus infection, and the patient didn’t care. “

▲ Lin Bingliang, Deputy Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University / Health Times

“In the early days, we didn’t realize this problem, so we missed this part of the patients, resulting in very passive prevention and control.” Lin Bingliang sighed.

On the afternoon of February 2, Kou Qiang, director of the Shandong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference of the Shandong provincial government that 14 cases of asymptomatic infection have occurred in Shandong. On the same day, He Jianxing, president of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, said that asymptomatic infections had also occurred in Guangdong.

On the same day, Academician Zhong Nanshan said:

“There are some reasons why we do virus tests for some people, most of them are because he has had contact with patients, or has been to Wuhan, or has come into contact with people from Wuhan. If the test is positive, There are individual cases where he can heal by himself, or he may get sick. “

According to incomplete statistics, asymptomatic infections have occurred in at least 7 places including Liaoning, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, and Shaanxi.

How to prevent and control “asymptomatic people”?

As of now, no authoritative organization or expert has proposed a simple and effective way to determine whether an ordinary person is an “asymptomatic infection”. But the best way to prevent and control “asymptomatic infected people” is to protect themselves and others by those three words: “Wear a mask, wash your hands frequently, and go out less frequently.”

The “Diagnosis and Treatment Scheme for Pneumonia of New Coronavirus Infection (between 1 ~ 2 meters or 1.5 meters) , avoid sharing Some items; Secondly, the new coronavirus is highly contagious, and there is a human-to-human phenomenon. It is best to eat tableware alone at home. Finally, if you suspect that you are infected, or if you have some symptoms of new coronavirus infection, you must Isolate in time.

Are we still far from the inflection point of the epidemic?

On February 4th, in the CCTV “News 1 + 1” program, the host Bai Yansong asked Jiang Rongmeng, a member of the expert team of the National Health Commission and the second department of infection at Beijing Ditan Hospital: “It ’s been 12 days since you closed the city. Is the inflection point still far away? “

Jiang Rongmeng said that there may be an incubation period later. The 6th is the first incubation period, and the 20th is the next incubation period. The number of suspected patients is still increasing.

However, some people are more optimistic. Tang Fenghu of Fenghuangwang analyzed in the article:

“With more than ten days since Wuhan ’s closure, the last group of returnees who left Wuhan before the closure on the 23rd, the actual infection has been basically confirmed (the incubation period is 3 to 7 days, plus the admission and diagnosis period is 3 to 4 days). . So the increase of 1 to 2 days shows a short-term decrease. It can be called primary Viral failure. In recent days, the new cases in various places have apparently turned into local cases, and most of them are close contacts (family members) of previously diagnosed patients.

Cartography \ Phoenix.com

This is a very obvious change. Outside the province, the risk of proliferation has been firmly controlled, and Wuhan can finally realize “receivables and receivables, and cures as needed.” In fact, the inflection point of epidemic spread has arrived.

The National Health Commission also responded to the “inflection point” issue. As long as we all wear masks, wash our hands, and gather less, and work together in accordance with the government’s requirements, the inflection point will definitely come as soon as possible.

So, whether it is “asymptomatic infected” or not, as long as you go out according to the country’s call, wearing more masks can reduce the chance of infection and being infected.

Reference:

[1]. Am I an “asymptomatic person”, Dr. Lilac, DingXiangYiSheng

[2]. Asymptomatic infection can also be transmitted, how to prevent it in the next step, Health Times

[3]. An inflection point has emerged, andA few good news, Phoenix Network, Tang Jiehu

[4] .Science | AAAS. (2020). Study claiming new coronavirus can be transmitted by people without symptoms was flawed. [online] Available at: https: // www .sciencemag.org / news / 2020/02 / paper-non-symptomatic-patient-transmitting-coronavirus-wrong [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020]

[5] .China.huanqiu.com. (2020). Many asymptomatic infections appear! How to prevent and control? Hear what experts say. [Online] Available at: https://china.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnKpbh4 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020]

[6]. National Health and Medical Commission, New Coronavirus Infected Pneumonia Diagnosis and Treatment Plan (Trial Version 5), 2020-02-05