RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A new survey conducted by researchers from Yale University in the United States and the Chinese General Hospital in China shows that half of the patients treated for Covid-19 can still have the coronavirus active in their bodies for up to eight days after the symptoms disappear.
Due to the results of the new research, doctors and scientists suggest that the quarantine period for those who had the disease should be extended beyond two weeks.
The research was published in the scientific journal American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, and published by Galileo.
Researchers examined 16 cases of patients aged around 35 who had been infected with Sars-coV-2, but who had already been cured and discharged from hospital.
Scientists collected samples of throat secretions from the volunteers on alternate days in order to analyze whether they were in fact cured.
“The most significant finding in our study is that half of patients continued to secrete the virus even after symptoms ceased,” says Lokesh Sharma, one of the study’s authors, in a press release.
“If you experienced mild respiratory symptoms and stayed home so as not to infect anyone, then extend the quarantine for another two weeks after recovery to ensure that you won’t actually infect others,” advises Lixin Xie, a physician and professor at the Chinese General Hospital’s Faculty of Pulmonary and Intensive Care Medicine, who also took part in the study.
The researchers also conveyed a message to the medical community: “patients with Covid-19 can be infectious even after symptomatic recovery; therefore, treat asymptomatic/recurrently recovered patients with the same care as symptomatic patients”.