For most, virus lasts few weeks, it’s over

Elderly patients, people with existing health problems bear sickness’ brunt

SEATTLE — Amid all the fear, quarantines and stockpiling of food, more than 60,000 people have recovered from the coronavirus spreading around the globe.

The disease can cause varying degrees of illness and is especially troublesome for older adults and people with existing health problems, who are at risk of severe effects, including pneumonia. But for most people affected, the coronavirus creates only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, with the vast majority recovering from the virus.

According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe ailments may take three to six weeks to rebound. In mainland China, where the virus first began, more than 80,000 people have been diagnosed, but more than 60,000 already have recovered.

Because the difference in impact can be so great, global health authorities have the task of alerting the public to the virus’s dangers without creating panic.

Already, the widespread consequences of the virus have been staggering, sending shock waves through the world’s financial markets. Global oil prices saw their worst percentage losses since the the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and new restrictions were imposed in Italy and in Israel as the Holy Week approached.

But even some of the most vulnerable patients can fight their way through the disease.

Charlie Campbell’s father, 89-year-old Eugene Campbell, has been diagnosed with the coronavirus and is hospitalized in Edmonds, Wash. Charlie Campbell said his father’s doctor is cautiously optimistic, adding, “under normal circumstances, he would discharge my dad, but these aren’t normal circumstances.”

Eugene Campbell was sent to the hospital from Life Care Center, a nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., that has been linked to a large share of Washington state’s coronavirus deaths.

“We went and saw him yesterday, and he looked pretty good,” Campbell said, noting that his father is breathing normally, and his vital signs and heart rate are good. “He may be the oldest person to recover from coronavirus.”

In China, Tan Shiyun, a postgraduate student at a university in Wuhan, had traveled to her family home in Yichang more than 180 miles away when she began to experience minor symptoms from the virus.

She went to the hospital, where she was given common cold medicine and sent home. It was only after her symptoms persisted and she visited the hospital a second time for an outpatient CT scan and received a call asking her to return and saying that her symptoms came from something other than the common flu.

“After that, I felt a heavy head while walking, unable to breathe, and nauseous,” Tan said in a video blog post. But after more than two weeks in the hospital, a CT scan showed her infection was disappearing and she was discharged.

A few patients with the virus who were interviewed by The Associated Press — all of them passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that ended up quarantined off Japan — described symptoms that were no stronger than a regular cold or flu.

“It’s been a 2 on a scale of 10,” said Carl Goldman, hospitalized in Omaha, Neb., since Feb. 17, after developing a 103-degree fever on a chartered flight from Japan to the U.S.

Goldman is staying hydrated with Gatorade. He said he continued coughing more than two weeks after he first got sick, but would probably only have missed one day of work if he had been diagnosed with the cold or flu.

For Greg Yerex, it was the couple’s mental health that faced the biggest threat as they spent days in quarantine, isolated from friends and family, and deprived of any direct human contact.

“It’s like being a prisoner,” he said. “You pace, you worry, you fret, you imagine all sorts of things. You have no control.”

Yerex said he and his wife, who have since been released from the hospital, plan to go to counseling to work through the mental stress they experienced.