Why some people are still sick-but not COVID

On September 18, Oriana Carvalho woke up at 3 am with a sore throat and snuff. At first, she thought her symptoms were caused by allergies. But as the minutes were ticked, she began to worry that they might have been caused by COVID-19. The next morning, Carvalho took a test at the University of Rhode Island. There she is a freshman in a PhD. In the next few hours she got feverish and the catastrophe began in earnest. She was relieved, but also surprised, when Carvalho finally learned that the cause of her misery was a cold rather than a COVID. “I was very careful, I wore a mask every time I went somewhere, at least 6 feet away from others, used hand sanitizers, and washed my hands,” she says. “I don’t know how I got sick.”

It’s not just Carvalho. Many Americans say that their best efforts to avoid COVID-19 do not always protect them from less annoying infections such as colds, gastric bugs, and streptococcal pharyngitis. I’m confused. How did other pathogens evade our anti-COVID defenses? There is no definite answer, but the work of infectious disease specialists, virologists, and epidemiologists was done decades before the current pandemic and provides some clues. According to their study, many microbes are tougher and more contagious than SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. And for many of us, even our best efforts are not enough.

Public health measures taken to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2, which is the cause of the above deaths 207,000 people To date, it has also affected the prevalence of other respiratory viruses in the United States.Southern Hemisphere this year Essentially skip the flu season, Usually hits countries such as Australia, Chile and South Africa in May or June.According to Australian data, pandemic restrictions have prevented many non-influenza viruses from circulating, but a group of cold-causing pathogens known as rhinoviruses Stuck.. A similar trend could be seen in the United States, according to researchers tracking respiratory virus infections in New York. State of Washington And Texas. Pedro Piedra, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Baylor College of Medicine, said he noticed an increase in rhinovirus this fall, although many common respiratory viruses were significantly reduced during the pandemic.

Some virologists believe that the number of viruses that cause a cold can be so great that it can be very difficult to avoid catching a cold. There are about 200 different pathogens. These include four coronaviruses (a group containing SARS-CoV-2). Four parainfluenza viruses (despite their name, have nothing to do with influenza virus). Respiratory syncytial virus; and 160 different rhinoviruses.Virus census revealed that Dozens of these rhinoviruses It circulates anywhere at a specific time. “You may be immune to the flu, but not all of them are immune to rhinoviruses,” says James Ghan, a rhinovirus researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “This is one of the unique characteristics of rhinoviruses. It is always susceptible to some.”

However, there is only one SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has proven to be more than sufficient to cause havoc in our lives. Ian Mackay, a virologist at the University of Queensland, Australia, states that the persistence of rhinoviruses during a pandemic can be the result of their impressive number as well as their primitive nature. Like the influenza virus, SARS-CoV-2 is a more highly evolved virus surrounded by a fatty “lipid” membrane. This envelope masks the pathogen from antibodies deployed by the human immune system, allowing it to infect undetected cells. However, it can also break down when exposed to the environment or wash your hands, making the virus harmless. Rhinovirus, on the other hand, did not evolve the envelope.These so-called naked viruses also include norovirus, which induces intestinal distress, are more resistant to disinfectants and disinfectants, and can last longer. fingertip And surface..

Although it is possible to pick up the respiratory virus from a contaminated surface, most experts say that contact with infected people is more likely to cause illness. In 1969, half of the group of men overwintering at a remote Antarctic base developed. Signs and symptoms of a cold After being isolated for 17 weeks. Scientists did not identify the cause of the outbreak, but Mackay and others believe that the men entering the base may not have been as healthy as they seemed. The asymptomatic spread has received a lot of attention during the COVID-19 pandemic: the study 40-45% of SARS-CoV-2 infections People who haven’t had any symptoms yet.. Many colds and flu can be transmitted to asymptomatic people, but the extent to which this spread occurs remains an open question.At least one study was detected Rhinovirus in one-third of asymptomatic children..

“Especially children are Petri dishes for transmission,” he says. Arnold Mont, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan the study Epidemic of respiratory illness In the home. Children tend to rub their eyes and pick their noses, which can quickly contaminate their homes with a swarm of viruses and bacteria.Unlike acute respiratory infections, which usually come and go in a few weeks, children can hide. Chronic infection With bacteria Streptococcus pyogenes, This causes streptococcal pharyngitis — months before getting sick of yourself or others. Tara Smith, an epidemiologist at Kent State University, says it is unclear how such bacteria migrate from harmless colony-forming bacteria to invasive pathogens, but pandemic stress may play a role. It states that there is.And children aren’t the only bacteria factories in our home: pets Many pathogens.. “People will probably get sick from their animals more than we are aware of,” Smith says.

Despite the myriad possibilities, many experts believe that the explanation for why some of us still have routine infections is fairly mediocre. “Some people may think they are more protected than they really are,” Smith says. “If the cold virus is still widespread, it means we still have person-to-person contact,” Ghan agrees. We live in a world where beneficial behaviors such as hugging friends and going to the gym now increase the risk to health. On her side, Carvalho thought she was doing everything she could to be safe. After months at home, she returned to the gym for a socially distant martial art. She now suspects that’s how she got sick.

More than 80,000 people who have wondered if they have been infected with COVID have called Doctor On Demand, a telemedicine company, since the pandemic began, according to Prentice Taylor, a doctor and vice president of healthcare for the company. I did. More than half of these cases were not referred to the COVID-19 test because of the high likelihood of other respiratory illnesses. In such situations, catching a cold instead of COVID may feel like dodging a bullet. However, the fact that other viruses were able to evade our defenses could serve as a warning against future pandemics, says Mackay. “If you see a new rhinovirus coming in, it’s even more difficult to contain it than SARS-CoV-2. A rhinovirus pandemic would be a major threat to that spread,” he said. Add while ringing. “And there is no guarantee that it will only cause a common cold.”