Woman who recovered from virus says don’t panic but be mindful of others
An American woman who recovered from the novel coronavirus has a simple message for people who are worried: don’t panic – but do think about people at high risk of contracting the virus and stay home if you feel ill.
Elizabeth Schneider, 37, lives in Seattle, the biggest city in Washington state, which has the most deaths in the United States from the disease sweeping across the world.
Ms Schneider, who has a doctorate in bioengineering, said she was sharing her story “to give people a little bit of hope” through her own relatively mild experience with the infection.
But, she said, “obviously, it’s not something to be completely nonchalant about, because there are a lot of people who are senior citizens or have underlying health conditions”.
“That means that we need to be extra vigilant about staying home, isolating ourselves from others.”
Ms Schneider first began experiencing flu-like symptoms on February 25, three days after going to a party that was later identified as the place where at least five other people became infected. By midday, she felt a headache coming on, with a fever and body aches. She left work and went home.
After waking up from a nap, Ms Schneider found she had a high temperature, which peaked at 39.4°C.
“And at that point, I started to shiver uncontrollably, and I was getting the chills and getting tingling in my extremities, so that was a little concerning,” she said.
She turned to over-the-counter flu medications to treat the symptoms but the fever began to recede in the coming days.
She had a flu shot but assumed her illness was a different strain. A visit to the doctor would result only in her being asked to go home, rest and drink plenty of fluids.
A few days later, however, she discovered that several people who had been at the party had all developed similar symptoms, and she became more suspicious.
Several of these people went to their doctors, where they were found to be negative for the flu, but they were not offered coronavirus tests because, like her, they were not coughing or having trouble breathing.
Knowing that she would also probably be turned down for the test, she decided to enrol in a research programme called the Seattle Flu Study, hoping it might provide an answer. The team sent her a nasal swab kit, which she mailed back and waited several more days.
“I finally got a phone call from one of the research co-ordinators on Saturday, telling me ‘you have tested positive for Covid-19’,” she said.
By this time, her symptoms had subsided and she was told to remain at home for at least seven days after the onset of symptoms or 72 hours after they subsided.
It has now been a week since she began to feel better. She has started going out for errands but is still avoiding large gatherings. Ms Schneider said she hoped her example, which will probably be typical of most cases, could comfort others.
“The message is don’t panic,” she said. “If you think that you have it, you probably do; you should probably get tested.
“If your symptoms aren’t life-threatening, simply stay at home, medicate with over-thecounter medicines, drink lots of water, get a lot of rest and check out the shows you want to binge-watch,” she said.