In a statement yesterday, an official of the World Health Organisation said there’s low-risk for asymptomatic people to be spreading the SARS-Cov-2 virus. These are people who test positive for the virus but have demonstrated no symptoms.
Maria Van Kerkhove is head of the WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit and a leading figure on the virus situation at the organisation. In a comment on Monday that is causing some debate among infectious disease experts she said, “It still appears to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual”.
Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s current technical lead for COVID-19, has stirred up some debate among infectious disease experts with the statement which also caused some debate about whether some people need to wear masks.(Martial Trezzini/Keystone/The Associated Press via CBC)
It should be noted that there is a difference between ‘asymptomatic’, those who demonstrate no effects from the disease, and ‘pre-symptomatic’ who have the virus but haven’t yet developed the symptoms but who will. Experts say these people can be spreading the virus before they show symptoms as might a third category described by Van Kerhove, They are people who feel a little tired or just a little ill, who don’t think they have the virus but may in fact “have really mild disease, very mild disease”.
In regard to asymptomatic individuals, she said the WHO has been studying reports of detailed contact tracing from a number of countries. “We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing. They’re following asymptomatic cases, they’re following contacts, and they’re not finding secondary transmission onward. It’s very rare. And much of that is not published in the literature”, Van Kerhove said in Geneva. The WHO had indicated months ago that it did not view asymptomatic individuals as ‘silent spreaders’ of the virus.
Late last week the WHO updated its information on the virus including advice on wearing of masks
Additional information-sources
- Bloomberg: J.Sutherland: Jun 9/20: Virus spreaders who never show symptoms are rare, WHO says
- Business Insider: Brueck/Woodward: June 9/20: WHO says it’s ‘rare’ for asymptomatic people to spread the coronavirus — but public-health experts say the reality is more complicated
- BBC: R. Schraer: Jun 9/20: Coronavirus: Asymptomatic transmission ‘very rare’
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