A study done by PGIMER, Chandigarh doctors has inferred that even if no one has any COVID-19 symptoms, if anyone has been in close contact with an infected person, it is essential to get a chest CT scan done after the isolation period, as there maybe chances of lung involvement.

The study has meta-analysed the available studies also and inferred that the asymptomatic carriers, who are either children or adults, should be alert, because they are capable of shielding and transmitting the infection in their incubation period without display of any signs and symptoms.

The study is a preprint done by doctors Khaiwal Ravindra, Bijaya K Padhi, Vivek Singh Malik, Sonu Goel and Madhu Gupta from the department of community medicine and paediatrics medicine.

The study has summarised the available retrospective studies and case reports from family-cluster, children, adults, healthcare staff and travellers.

Asymptomatic transmission from person to person was seen among familial-cluster in an asymptomatic COVID-19 child who was aged 10 years. His chest CT was abnormal and another child was with mild chest CT manifestation while his family members were diagnosed positive for coronavirus and showed signs of fever and respiratory issues.

The authors have suggested that detailed investigations in combination with multiple detection methods such as RT-PCR, Rapid IgM-IgG, chest CT, and serum CRP level can detect the asymptomatic carriers in the society with variable clinical manifestations between individuals.

The study has found that among pregnant women’s fetuses are at high-risk in any disease outbreak. However, there isn’t any evidence to support that the infection is transmitted in neonates born to COVID-19 infected mothers.

Few of the reviewed studies showed that rapid transmission of COVID-19 was reported in 76 cases out of them 23 cases (30.3%) had positive test results, and almost 13 cases were asymptomatic on the day of testing. This suggests the possibility of asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19.

Dr Khaiwal said that this is the first study that has reviewed the possibility of asymptomatic COVID-19 transmission at different levels in the community. It has also identified the potential role of isolation, social distancing, identification of close contacts and testing asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. The diagnostics that are involved are chest CT scan and nucleic acid testing to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in the community.

Source: ET Healthworld