Image copyright
Getty Images
The coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Superpropagation, where individual patients transmit an infection to a large number of people, is a characteristic that has been repeated in almost all outbreaks of recent contagious diseases.
It is not the fault of people to carry this peculiarity, but at the same time they have a significant impact on how a disease expands.
- How worried should we be about the coronavirus?
So far, initial reports of superpropagators are already known in the outbreak of the new coronavirus that first appeared in the city of Wuhan, China, late last year.
The British Steve Walsh, who contracted the virus in Singapore, is linked for example with the infection of another 11 people during a holiday in the snow in the French Alps.
Five of those infected are now in the United Kingdom, another five in France and one in Mallorca, Spain.
Walsh, meanwhile, said Tuesday that he has fully recovered, but that he and his family remain isolated “as a precaution.”
What is a superpropager?
It is a term without a strict scientific definition.
Basically it’s about someone who significantly infects to more people than what the makes a patient habitual.
Image copyright
Reuters
Medical staff is a sector that is more at risk of being infected by a superpropagator.
On average, each person infected with the new coronavirus transmits it between two to three people.
But this is only an average; Some people don’t pass it on to anyone, while others infect many.
- “A very scary feeling”: life aboard the cruise ship quarantined by the coronavirus
How much impact can a case of superpropagation generate?
Massive and can have a big impact on an outbreak.
In 2015, a situation of this nature led to 82 people becoming infected with a single patient from the hospital with Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS), a virus that has a certain relationship with the current coronavirus.
- How Wuhan coronavirus is diagnosed (and which countries in Latin America can do it)
In the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014, the vast majority of cases (61%) came from a small handful of patients (3%).
“There were more than 100 new transmission chains from a single funeral in June this year“explained Dr. Nathalie MacDermott of King’s College, London.
Why do some people spread more?
Some simply come into contact with many more people, either because of their work or where they live, and that means they can spread the disease more, whether they show symptoms or not.
“Children are related to it (spreading a virus), so closing schools can be a good measure,” says John Edmunds of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
For his part, Professor Mark Woolhouse, from the University of Edinburgh, adds that “commercial sex workers were very important in the spread of HIV.”
- Wuhan hospital confirms the death of the doctor who tried to alert about the new coronavirus
There are other superpropagators that release unusually large amounts of the virus from their bodies, so anyone who comes into contact with them is more likely to get infected.
Image copyright
Getty Images
There is no exact or scientific definition of what a superpropager is.
The hospitals that treated the acute respiratory syndrome and serious (SARS, for its acronym in English) became an important center of superpropagation, because the sickest patients were also the most affected by the virus and came into contact with many health workers.
How do these people change an outbreak?
“They play an important role in the beginning of any outbreak, when the virus begins to establish itself,” Edmunds explains.
The new infections, including the coronavirus, come from animals.
When the first patient jumps, the disease may disappear before it can cause a large outbreak.
But if you can quickly find your way to a superpropager, then it gives a boost to the virus’s spread. The same rules apply when cases are transferred to other countries.
“Yes I know has several sorperpropagers close, to haveto difficulties to contain an outbreak“says MacDermott.
What will it take to stop the coronavirus if there is a superpropagation?
The superpropagation of the new coronavirus would not be a surprise and will not significantly change the way the disease is managed since it was detected.
Image copyright
Getty Images
The coronavirus has already become more deadly than SARS.
At the moment, it depends completely on the identification of cases and of any person with whom they have come into contact quickly.
“That makes it even more important: you can’t afford too many mistakes. You can’t lose the location of a superpropager,” says Professor Woolhouse.
Is it the superpropager’s fault?
Historically, there was a tendency to demonize the superpropager.
For example, the Irish cook Mary Mallon (1869-1938), without knowing it, transmitted typhoid when she had no visible symptoms and ended up spending decades of isolation and forced quarantine.
He went down in history renamed as Mary Typhoid or Mary the Typhoid.
But in reality, it is not the patient’s fault.
“We must be careful with the language we use,” insists MacDermott.
“They have not done anything wrong, this is an infection that is not their fault.”
Now you can receive notifications from BBC News World. Download our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.
- Do you already know our YouTube channel? Subscribe!
–
