'People living with Coronavirus patients more prone to infection'
New Delhi: In a startling a revelation, it has come to the notice that those accompanying COVID-19 patients are more prone to the infection rather than people coming in close contact with an infected one.
According to the latest study conducted by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control Prevention, it has been claimed that most of the close contacts of positive cases of Coronavirus have a greater fear of infection.
In a first of its kind study on how the close contacts of COVID-19 victims are affected, it has been found that those who live, eat and travel with the positive cases are most vulnerable while those who come in contact with corona infected are least vulnerable.
As per the study, which was published in noted medical journal Lancet, it has been found that of the total 391 infected people in China's Shenzhen city, 1,711 were traced as close contacts and among them 11 per cent got infected while living along with positive cases, while 5.7 per cent got infected while travelling with infected COVID-19 patients and 8.6 per cent became corona positive after sharing food with the victims of the virus.
The study was conducted on the data collected from January 14 to February 12 by the Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP). During the research, the researchers estimated metrics of disease transmission and analysed factors influencing transmission risk.
All the contacts of the infected patients were divided into three different categories to investigate virus transmission. The first category consisted of people who lived in a home with an infected person, while the second category was close contacts who travelled with the infected person and the third category was of those who dined with the infected ones.
As per the report, out of 686 such close contacts who lived in a house with the infected, 77 persons that amount to 11.2 per cent people were found infected.
Similarly, of the 318 persons who came in contact during the visit, 18 which is 5.7 per cent turned out to be corona positive and out of 707 people who shared food with COVID-19 patients, 61, which amounts to 8.6 per cent were found to have Coronavirus infection, the study stated.
"If the rate of infection of these three categories is combined, it is closer to 25.5 per cent, which one-fourth of the total cases," it said, adding that the rate of transmission may vary in a different part of the country.
However, experts have opined that there might be several other reasons for infection. "It's fine that the rate of infection is highest among the people living together but several other factors may also work in it. The transmission may also depend on how many people live in a house," an expert said.
