A Reliable Predictor For Coronavirus
The deathly Coronavirus so far has infected over 7.3 million people andtaken the lives of 418, 000. Though the pandemic is still dominating several countries, mostcountries are seeing fewer cases of covid-19 infections so are slowing recovering their economy and taking lead to bring back their communities lives back to normal.
Alongside the reopening of countries, it is important to realise that approximately 40% of covid-19 cases are asymptomatic. A study published on the 27th of May, carried out on 78 patients from Wuhan, China, identified that from all these individuals tested for covid-19 using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) 33 individuals failed the test. In other words, they were asymptotic to the virus. This study also found out several factors that contributed to individuals becoming asymptomatic, this included, young adults (below the age of 37 years), females, those who have a lower count of CD4+T lymphocyte cells and those who experience a faster recovery of the virus. Therefore, asymptomatic individuals can include individuals who have previously tested positive for the virus but had a faster recovery rate and are now unknowingly shredding virus particles to the community.
However, to counter this problem, a recent study done by a group of UK doctors suggest that asymptomatic individuals can be easily identified if they are tested for their sense of smell or taste. Scientifically, this condition is known as Anosmia, the loss of sense of smell and ageusia described as the loss of taste function.
This is true not only for the UK but other countries, globally, South Korea has known to conduct massive testing sites this includes innovative ways such as drive-through testing centres, from these data 30% of 2000 individuals tested for covid-19 experiences were tested positive for anosmia. Overall, Professor Claire Hopkins from the British Rhinological Society wants to warn the globe that anosmia is a positive sign of infection for asymptomatic individuals and highly states that such individuals should go into self-isolation.
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