Can you become a coronavirus super spreader? And why are some of us so infectious?

As the coronavirus continues to be torn around the world, scientists are asking: are some people more infectious than others? Is there a super spreader that is likely to exhale the virus and infect others? The answer seems to be yes. Whether it’s the result of genetics, social habits, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong place, the super-spreader is a loosely defined term for people who get infected with an excessive number of people. There seems to be.

But these virus carriers, at the heart of what’s called a superdiffusion event, cause and may cause epidemics, researchers say. It may occur during Covid-19.

Equally important is the people on the other side of the spectrum. People who are infected but are unlikely to spread. Distinguishing between highly infectious and less infectious people could make a big difference in the ease and speed with which outbreaks can be suppressed. John Zellner, An epidemiologist at the University of Michigan. Contact tracking is especially important if the infected person is a super spreader. However, if the infected person is on the other side of the super spreader, contact tracking can be a waste of work if someone does not get the virus for some reason.

If you are the first person to get infected in a crowded room and this is a predisposing illness, you look like a super spreader. Everyone in the room may have had the same effect. You were just the first

“The tricky part is not necessarily knowing who those people are,” says Zelner. According to two factors are working Martina Morris, Emeritus Professor of Statistics and Sociology at the University of Washington. “In order to transmit an infection, there must be a connection between people,” she says. But he added that the link was “necessary, but not enough.” The second factor is human infectivity. “There is little independent data on these two things.”

Morris points out that it may be easy to misidentify multiple infections to an individual if the infection is not related to the individual’s infectivity. “If you are the first person to get infected in a crowded room and this is a predisposing illness, you will look like a super spreader,” she says. “Everyone in the room could have had the same effect. You were just the first member.”

However, there seem to be situations in which a small number of individuals are causing a large outbreak. According to Dr. Covid-19, it’s not yet known if those highly infectious people include individuals with silent infections who are unaware that they are ill. Thomas Frieden, Former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. More likely, he added, hyperexpansion events may include people who have protracted symptoms but who are not ill enough to stay home.

Or it may involve an infected person who released an abnormal amount of the virus. For example, it may be due to changes in the amount of virus in the aerosol droplets from the patient’s cough, or the amount of infectious virus in the feces.

Whatever the cause, public health measures such as avoiding the crowd and what Frieden calls cough hygiene can prevent the epidemic, he says. The medical history is full of stories of the epidemic in the development of parasitic diseases, tuberculosis, measles and other diseases. Be Mary MarronThe Irish-born chef, better known as Typhoid Mary, spread typhoid fever to over 50 in the early 20th century. She was not ill herself but was asymptomatic-quietly infected with typhoid fever.

Superdiffusion also played an important role in the development of two other coronaviruses that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome. “The outbreak of Mers-CoV in South Korea was mainly caused by three infected individuals. About 75% of cases can be traced to three super spreaders, each infected with a very large number of contacts. I can.” George Gao, An immunologist and virologist at the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing, wrote in a recent paper.

The outbreak in South Korea began in 2015, when a 68-year-old man was infected with Mers during a trip to the Middle East. He returned to South Korea and directly infected 29 people, two of which infected 106. The total number of cases in Korea at that time was 166. The superdiffusion event accounted for the majority of the occurrence.

The first patient in Hong Kong appeared to have infected at least 125 people during the 2003 outbreak. Other ultra-diffusion events were attended by 180 people in a Hong Kong apartment complex and 22 by jet from Hong Kong to Beijing.

The Ebola outbreak in Africa between 2014 and 2016 traced 61% of infections to just 3% of those infected. Superspread also seems to have triggered the outbreak of the new coronavirus. One event took place at the end of February, when 175 Biogen executives met at a hotel in Boston. At least one was infected with the coronavirus. Two weeks later, 75% of 108 Massachusetts residents infected with the virus were associated with Biogen. The infectious disease then spread to other American states and other Massachusetts residents.

“Why at that meeting?” Asks Dr. Eric Topol of Scripps Research Translation Institute in California. “There were so many conferences at the time, before they made a social separation. Something was happening.”

The nature of our society today is that we are very interested in catastrophic. The best way to do that is to have something like a zombie story. It’s a powerful story

Opposite the infectious bell curve is an infected person who appears to be uninfected. During the outbreak of Mers in South Korea, 89% of patients did not appear to have the disease. In the Covid-19 pandemic, there are impressive examples from the far end of non-infected individuals. Illinois couple. On January 23, his wife, who returned from a visit to Wuhan, China, was the first case of Covid-19 confirmed in the laboratory. On January 30, her husband was infected. This was the first known person-to-person transmission in the United States.

Both the couple became seriously ill and were hospitalized. Both have recovered. State public health officials tracked contacts – 372 people, including 195 health workers. No one was infected.

Doctor Jennifer RadenThe Chicago Public Health Department’s chief medical officer said the significant lack of spread was probably a result of several factors. Where were they in the process of their infection when they came into contact with other people? Did they sneeze or cough? How close were your contacts? Are the people they interact with simply less susceptible to infectious diseases?

There are pitfalls as it’s just as mesmerizing as looking for a viral super spreader. Instead, if public health authorities missed infections from others, clusters of infections are likely due to superspreaders, according to Zelner. And the story of Super Spreader has social implications.

“The current nature of our society is that we are very interested in catastrophic,” he says. Samuel Roberts, A medical historian at Columbia University in New York. “The best way to do that is to have something that looks like a zombie story. It’s a powerful story.”

The general public does not need to know if the outbreak was tracked by one person, he says. “The more important thing is how to protect yourself. Finding zero patients is useless. You just fear the other person.”-The New York Times