Foreigners' Comprehensive Services Hotline: 400-8678-110
3 points you should know about asymptomatic infections
At present, the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in China has been basically blocked. However, the COVID-19 asymptomatic infections have attracted much attention.
What are asymptomatic infections? How infectious are they? How to deal with the risk of transmission of asymptomatic infections after resuming work and production? What should the public do for protecting themselves? For these focusing issues that people generally concerned, reporter from Xinhua News Agency interviewed experts to find out answers.
How infectious are the asymptomatic infections?
Wei Sheng, a professor at the School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, says: "The infectiousness of asymptomatic infected people depends on different situations. The infectiousness is very low if an asymptomatic infection is found in Wuhan after being quarantined for so many days. And it is very high if an asymptomatic infection is found in a population returning from a high-hit area abroad. It is necessary to judge each case separately. "
As Tong Zhaohui, a member of the Central Steering Expert Group and the deputy director of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, says there are 2 types of asymptomatic infections: The first type is confirmed COVID-19 patients with no symptom being developed. They are still in the incubation period, and needed to be screened out for quarantine. The other type is true asymptomatic infection with no symptom and no image change. They are not patients, but only show positive on nucleic acid test.
How to screen out and control asymptomatic infections?
According to the introduction of experts, there are several main sources of asymptomatic infections screened out in Wuhan, Hubei: The first type is the close contacts of the confirmed cases. The second type is the ordinary patients who came to the hospitals for seeking medical advice. The third type is the workers who are found out by enterprises before the resumption of production. The fourth type is screened out from the people who left Wuhan.
Li Qun says that medical and health institutions at all levels finding out asymptomatic infections should report directly within 2 hours. After receiving reports of asymptomatic infections, the CDC at the county / district level must complete the case investigations of asymptomatic infections within 24 hours.
"The same strict measures as the confirmed cases have been treated are adopted on the asymptomatic infections as well. They will be under very strict management, quarantine, and medical observation after they are discovered." Li Qun says, "Asymptomatic infections should be concentrated for 14 days’ medical observation. Once the symptoms are developed, they will be transferred to the designated hospitals for treatments. And they will be converted as confirmed cases in real time as long as they are definitely diagnosed. After 2 negative nucleic acid tests, the concentrated medical observation can be lifted, but 2 weeks of health follow-up is still required. Furthermore, they must go to designated hospitals for re-examinations in the second week and the fourth week. And close contacts of asymptomatic infections will also have to accept a 14 days’ medical observation. "
How should the public protect themselves?
In response to some people’s panic emotion on asymptomatic infections, Tong Zhaohui says that close contacts of confirmed cases are the main source of asymptomatic infections. People who have not been exposed to COVID-19 patients are generally not infected. So there is no need to be panicked.
Li Qun says: "The public needs to be aware of the risk of infection, but there is no need to worry too much. When it is impossible to distinguish whether there are asymptomatic infections around, it is more important to do personal protection."
Experts generally believe that ordinary people without any symptom and suspicious contact history do not need to do nucleic acid test. Large-scale screening of the general population is neither feasible nor necessary. What the public needs to do is to do personal protection, develop good hygiene habit, increase nutrition, rest well, and improve self-immunity.
How infectious are the asymptomatic infections?
Wei Sheng, a professor at the School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, says: "The infectiousness of asymptomatic infected people depends on different situations. The infectiousness is very low if an asymptomatic infection is found in Wuhan after being quarantined for so many days. And it is very high if an asymptomatic infection is found in a population returning from a high-hit area abroad. It is necessary to judge each case separately. "
As Tong Zhaohui, a member of the Central Steering Expert Group and the deputy director of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, says there are 2 types of asymptomatic infections: The first type is confirmed COVID-19 patients with no symptom being developed. They are still in the incubation period, and needed to be screened out for quarantine. The other type is true asymptomatic infection with no symptom and no image change. They are not patients, but only show positive on nucleic acid test.
How to screen out and control asymptomatic infections?
According to the introduction of experts, there are several main sources of asymptomatic infections screened out in Wuhan, Hubei: The first type is the close contacts of the confirmed cases. The second type is the ordinary patients who came to the hospitals for seeking medical advice. The third type is the workers who are found out by enterprises before the resumption of production. The fourth type is screened out from the people who left Wuhan.
Li Qun says that medical and health institutions at all levels finding out asymptomatic infections should report directly within 2 hours. After receiving reports of asymptomatic infections, the CDC at the county / district level must complete the case investigations of asymptomatic infections within 24 hours.
"The same strict measures as the confirmed cases have been treated are adopted on the asymptomatic infections as well. They will be under very strict management, quarantine, and medical observation after they are discovered." Li Qun says, "Asymptomatic infections should be concentrated for 14 days’ medical observation. Once the symptoms are developed, they will be transferred to the designated hospitals for treatments. And they will be converted as confirmed cases in real time as long as they are definitely diagnosed. After 2 negative nucleic acid tests, the concentrated medical observation can be lifted, but 2 weeks of health follow-up is still required. Furthermore, they must go to designated hospitals for re-examinations in the second week and the fourth week. And close contacts of asymptomatic infections will also have to accept a 14 days’ medical observation. "
How should the public protect themselves?
In response to some people’s panic emotion on asymptomatic infections, Tong Zhaohui says that close contacts of confirmed cases are the main source of asymptomatic infections. People who have not been exposed to COVID-19 patients are generally not infected. So there is no need to be panicked.
Li Qun says: "The public needs to be aware of the risk of infection, but there is no need to worry too much. When it is impossible to distinguish whether there are asymptomatic infections around, it is more important to do personal protection."
Experts generally believe that ordinary people without any symptom and suspicious contact history do not need to do nucleic acid test. Large-scale screening of the general population is neither feasible nor necessary. What the public needs to do is to do personal protection, develop good hygiene habit, increase nutrition, rest well, and improve self-immunity.
来源：新华社
版权归原作者所有，如果侵权请联系删除
