Officials have long been helping to promote the use of increased coronavirus testing as a way to handle the spread of the virus better. And while there may be problems with accuracy, medical experts believe that testing is one of the best ways to identify and control a new outbreak before it can get out of hand. Now, a recent study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the United Kingdom demonstrates why it is especially important to get tested regularly: 78 % of people tested positive for COVID-19 didn’t show any symptoms when swabbed.
The study, which concentrated on a number of COVID-19 infections in private households, hospitals, nursing homes, and other institutions in England, intends to shed light on the importance of “silent spreaders,” patients with COVID-19 who continue to interact with others, unaware that they are actually contagious, BBC reports. According to the study, 78 % of respondents who had COVID-19 indicated that they had no symptoms on the day they were tested.
This number includes both pre-symptomatic patients who ultimately show signs of the virus as well as asymptomatic patients who never develop noticeable symptoms of the disease. While the ONS was quick to point out that the 120-patient test group made it too small to draw solid conclusions as to who might be more likely to become infected, it is obvious that “silent spreaders” have become a problem.
Patients with no symptoms have recently become the subject of many coronavirus pandemic studies as scientists try to get a grip on how the disease can spread so rapidly within populations. A May study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) reported that 40% of all coronavirus transmission occurs in people who have no symptoms. As far as research goes, Emily Landon, MD, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago Medicine, told NPR in June that it will take at least three to five days after exposure to test positive for coronavirus.
So, if you’ve had close contact with someone with COVID-19, or if you’ve been in a high-risk situation, it’s good to get tested to find out. Only watch out for a false negative result. According to a June report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, there is a significant number of false negatives in the findings of the COVID test, normally because the test is either too early or too late in the patient’s illness.
