According to the data reported by the National Health and Medical Commission, on March 29, there were 1,565 new confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia in the country, and 7,090 local asymptomatic infections. Why are there so many asymptomatic infections? Do they also cause viral contagion? How to receive treatment to eliminate the virus in the body? How should the general public be prevented? In this regard, Liu Fuqiang, director of the Emergency Office of the Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, answered.
What is an asymptomatic infection?
Liu Fuqiang introduced that asymptomatic infection is a positive nucleic acid test, but currently there is no fever, dry cough, fatigue, sore throat, loss of smell (taste), diarrhea, etc. that can be self-perceived or can be detected. Clinically recognized symptoms and signs, and CT imaging has no imaging features of new coronary pneumonia, and cannot be diagnosed as a “confirmed case” positive infection according to the current situation. Some asymptomatic infections are only currently in the incubation period and may develop into symptomatic confirmed cases. Some asymptomatic infected people have no clinical symptoms under the action of autoimmunity.
Asymptomatic just means that the infected person has no symptoms, but it is as contagious as the confirmed case, and it is transmitted to others through direct transmission, aerosol transmission, and contact transmission.
The large number and high proportion of asymptomatic infections are the obvious features of this round of the epidemic. This feature is not only related to the virus itself, but also to timely screening, early detection of infection, and even vaccination.
Why is there an increase in asymptomatic infections in this round of the epidemic?
It is related to its own characteristics of Ormicron variant. With the mutation of the virus, the infectivity of the Omicron variant is enhanced, its toxicity is relatively weakened, and the clinical symptoms are relatively mild, which will cause many infected people to not show clinical symptoms after infection.
Related to early detection and control. Due to the rapid screening and detection by the disease control team, some early infected persons were quickly discovered and detected before they had symptoms. The more detailed the flow adjustment work, the higher the probability of “intercepting” infected people at an early stage, and the more timely control of disease spread. Asymptomatic infected people are the people who were “intercepted” early. With the strengthening of early detection capabilities in various places, the goal of nucleic acid detection is to complete the nucleic acid detection task in the designated area within 24 hours. The latest deployment of nucleic acid screening has enabled localities to detect infected persons as early as possible in a shorter period of time and control the source of infection. Therefore, compared with the past when they were found in sentinel medical institutions due to fever and dry cough, many infected people were found much earlier.
Related to mass population immunization. Now the coverage rate of vaccination is high. After vaccination, the body’s immunity is enhanced. Even if infected, some symptoms may not appear relatively, so vaccination is still very effective.
How to deal with asymptomatic infection?
Liu Fuqiang said that according to the relevant national requirements, asymptomatic infected persons should also be screened for close contacts and sub-close contacts, screening of high-risk groups, and corresponding site control measures. Close contacts and next-close contacts of asymptomatic infected persons, and close contacts and second-close contacts of confirmed cases, are managed and screened in the same way.
At present, asymptomatic infected people do not need special treatment, but only need to undergo centralized isolation and medical observation. At present, Hunan implements traditional Chinese medicine intervention for all asymptomatic infected persons, one is to control their absence of symptoms, especially not to become common type; the other is to promote their nucleic acid to turn negative as soon as possible. During the period of centralized isolation medical observation, blood routine, CT imaging examination and antibody testing should be carried out for asymptomatic infected persons. If relevant symptoms or signs appear in the future and meet the diagnostic criteria for confirmed cases, it will be revised as a confirmed case and treated and managed as a confirmed case.
How can ordinary people prevent it?
Liu Fuqiang analyzed that from the perspective of epidemic prevention and control, the existence of asymptomatic infections makes it difficult to detect the epidemic, and if a large number of asymptomatic infections are not detected in time, The further spread of the epidemic has increased the difficulty of timely control of the epidemic. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out rapid and strict traceability of flow regulation. The key is to be fast, early detection and early isolation. Epidemiological work is difficult and complex, and it needs to be more rigorous and careful. Not only should we pay attention to the close contact, sub-close contact, and general contacts of cases, but also consider whether there is a transmission chain in the early stage of the case, and try to find asymptomatic infected persons as much as possible. Only by finding all asymptomatic infected persons in the shortest possible time and completely blocking community transmission can we achieve social zero as soon as possible.
Personnel in the epidemic prevention and control area should actively cooperate with the epidemic prevention and control requirements and do a good job in nucleic acid testing. Families with conditions can learn from the work methods of hospital infection management and prevention, divide safe areas and polluted areas at home, improve the family’s “hospital sense” prevention and control awareness, and avoid cross-infection.
Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Xia Sheng correspondent Zhang Yana