Mindanao Times

40% of virus carriers in Italian townshow no symptoms: study

- BY PATRICK GALEY

MORE than 40 percent of people diag- nosed with COVID-19 in one Italian town showed no signs of being ill, according to research published Tuesday indicating that asymptomat­ic carriers may be significan­t spreaders of the virus.

The authors said their research showed how important mass testing and isolating carriers was in containing clusters of the virus.

The town of Vo, population 3,200, registered Italy's first death from the disease in late February. It was immediatel­y placed in a two-week lockdown, during which researcher­s were able to test more than 85 percent of the population for COVID-19.

They found that 2.3 percent of Vo was infected at the beginning of quarantine, compared with 1.2 percent at the end of lockdown, and that more than 40 percent of those who tested positive showed no symptoms.

The authors of the research, published in the journal Nature, said their findings showed how rapid case isolation and mass testing was able to effectivel­y eliminate the virus from Vo.

"Testing of all citizens, whether or not they have symptoms, provides a way to manage the spread of disease and prevent outbreaks getting out of hand," said Andrea Crisanti, of the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Padua and the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London.

"Despite 'silent' and widespread transmissi­on, the disease can be controlled."

The team found that asymptomat­ic COVID-19 carriers had a similar viral load to those who got sick, suggesting that while not ill themselves they could still spread the virus.

"Even asymptomat­ic infections have the potential to contribute to transmissi­on," said Enrico Lavezzo, from the University of Padua, who contribute­d to the study.

This was particular­ly noteworthy for policymake­rs seeking to limit COVID-19 clusters from spreading, he said.

"An asymptomat­ic infection is entirely unconsciou­s of carrying the virus and, according to their lifestyle and occupation, could meet a large number of people without modifying their behaviour," said Lavezzo.

The data from Vo also showed that none of the children under the age of 10 tested positive for COVID-19 despite living with several adults who did.

A Europe-wide study released last week showed that children are extremely unlikely to die from COVID-19, and age is known to be a key risk factor for the virus' mortality.

Co-author Ilaria Dorigatti, from the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial, said the findings were relevant for government­s as lockdowns are eased around the world.

"The Vo study demonstrat­es that the early identifica­tion of infection clusters and the timely isolation of symptomati­c as well as asymptomat­ic infections can suppress transmissi­on and curb an epidemic in its early phase," she said.

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