I'm seeing a lot of discussion about #COVID19 "viral load" and the relationship to severity, much of which is confused.
Thankfully, @CEBMOxford has a fairly good explanation; https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/sars-cov-2-viral-load-and-the-severity-of-covid-19/ …
Here's a quick summary / explanation thread.
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First, what is "viral load"? It means amount of virus (in something). Often, it's used to talk about an infected patient's viral load - how much virus they have in them. But it can also refer to amount of virus in droplets from a cough, or amount a person was exposed to.
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Viral dose, which
@CebmOxford uses, is a better term for the last category in this discussion, but there are papers out there that refer to viral load that patients are exposed to, i.e. viral dose, as well.1 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
OK, so there's a bunch of evidence that links viral load in a patient to severity. This makes sense - if the person's body is doing poorly fighting the virus, there will be more virus *and/or* if there is more virus present, a person will have a harder time fighting it.
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The link between viral load and severity is not very clear for COVID19, (but, it seems that's because there haven't been many studies, and number of subjects in such studies is small.) There's clearer evidence about SARS and influenza, and reason to think COVID will be similar.
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Replying to @davidmanheim @CebmOxford
Stefan RuijsenÆrs Retweeted Minh Le Cong
some anecdotal evidencehttps://twitter.com/ketaminh/status/1240726678084575233?s=20 …
Stefan RuijsenÆrs added,
Minh Le Cong @ketaminhSo Italian docs warning that hospitals become main sources of transmission . HCW get infected then spread to rest of community . Difficult situation then . Chinese HCWs lived in temporary accomodation or in cordoned hotels . Rotated out once cleared of infection risk14day shifts?Show this thread2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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