DDC: Risk of second wave of infections low as new patients carried 'dead' Covid-19 cells

By The Nation

 

Photo Credit: DDC

 

The Public Health Ministry’s Department of Disease Control (DDC) confirmed two new Covid-19 cases were found out of state quarantine, but said the risk of a second wave of infections was still low as the two had a small amount of genetic virus material, meaning the virus was "dead" and could not be transmitted to others.

 

Director-general Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai said both patients had undergone a 14-day-quarantine and were now being treated at Ramathibodi Chakri Naruebodindra Hospital. The two women had separately sought a Covid-19 test to apply for a health certificate because they were going aboard, but the hospital tests found they had traces of the virus in their bodies.

 

One case is a 34-year-old woman who returned from the United Arab Emirates on June 24 without any symptoms and completed her quarantine period.

 

A first test on June 5 found a small quantity of genetic material, but she was hardly considered as infected. A second test, conducted on July 13, again came back with a negative result. After the 14-day state quarantine, she returned to her hometown in Chaiyaphum province and continued her quarantine at home for another 10 days. Later, on August 10, she decided to go abroad and went to Ramathibodi Chakri Naruebodindra Hospital for a medical certificate.

 

However, her virus result was suddenly positive, though it showed she had a small amount of genetic virus material in her body. She is being treated at the hospital, but doctors say she didn’t contract the virus from another person, which meant there was no risk of the virus spreading.

 

The other case is a 35-year-old woman, who also returned from the United Arab Emirates on June 24 without any symptoms and passed the quarantine period after two tests showed negative results. She then returned to her hometown in Loei province. But on August 16, she came to Bangkok for a medical certificate as she planned to work abroad. A test result on August 18 was positive, due to the presence of virus antibodies, and the hospital immediately admitted her for treatment.

 

The DDC said that even though both patients had a small quantity of genetic material in their systems, the virus was dead and hence not capable of transmitting.

 

The department is nevertheless tracing the history and close contacts of both patients to make sure nobody else has got infected and inform them to undergo quarantine.

 

Dr Sopon Iamsirithaworn, director of the Disease Control Department’s Bureau of General Communicable Diseases, noted that according to the USCDC, there was a possibility that a patient could carry the virus for up to three months without showing any symptoms. In Thailand, there was a case in which a patient carried the virus for two months. However, the virus has a low ability to multiply or spread after day 8.

 

As for the case of the infected Malaysian, who claimed to have contracted Covid-19 in Thailand, the DDC hasn’t yet received any information from that country’s health authorities. Some 11 close contacts of the Malaysian in Thailand have been tested for the virus and cleared after all results were negative.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30393246

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-08-20

 

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2 minutes ago, webfact said:

Covid-19 cells

Latest scientific news, covid19 are cells! 

Thailand - the hub for reinventing medicine

Friend asked me a while ago if we would have a second wave. I told him I didn't know but didn't seem likely as there wasn't really a first one. I did tell him that if the protests were to grow in size, they'd be mentioning more about a second wave. This seems to be it. 

The article makes no sense at all.

 

You don't admit someone to hospital for being antibody positive if they are antigen negative. And a health certificate for work would nto normally require a COVID antibody test.

 

Having a very low viral load does not mean the viral particles are "dead". (Though it does render you less infectious).

 

I can only assume the reporters did nto understand the medical details and garbled them. And that bioth women tested positive for COVID antigen (not antibody) about 4 weeks after leaving quarantine with 2 initial negative tests.

10 minutes ago, rkidlad said:

Friend asked me a while ago if we would have a second wave. I told him I didn't know but didn't seem likely as there wasn't really a first one. I did tell him that if the protests were to grow in size, they'd be mentioning more about a second wave. This seems to be it. 

This. D614G strain that ravaged USA and Europe has arrived in Malaysia, Thailand will have to deal with that eventually, and it will not be plain sailing like this year

I guess this is another spin of denial. In their DNA, now dead cells. You simply couldn't make it up.

Well obviously someone is.

This has been reported on. The truly asymptomatic patients are probably immune and the particles of virus they pick up are smashed virus strands that are not infectious. The PCR amplifies the virus in the body to detect the virus, but cannot distinguish between destroyed virus and live infectious virus so many that are confirmed cases are not really cases at all.

 

Here is one link that discusses this issue from a swiss immunologist:

 

https://medium.com/@vernunftundrichtigkeit/coronavirus-why-everyone-was-wrong-fce6db5ba809

 

"So if we do a PCR corona test on an immune person, it is not a virus that is detected, but a small shattered part of the viral genome. The test comes back positive for as long as there are tiny shattered parts of the virus left. Correct: Even if the infectious viruses are long dead, a corona test can come back positive, because the PCR method multiplies even a tiny fraction of the viral genetic material enough [to be detected]. That’s exactly what happened, when there was the global news, even shared by the WHO, that 200 Koreans who already went through Covid-19 were infected a second time and that there was therefore probably no immunity against this virus. The explanation of what really happened and an apology came only later, when it was clear that the immune Koreans were perfectly healthy and only had a short battle with the virus. The crux was that the virus debris registered with the overly sensitive test and therefore came back as “positive”. It is likely that a large number of the daily reported infection numbers are purely due to viral debris."

super science from thailand, any scientific papers included?

 

dead virus ? lol

 

waf waf

 

cannot wait for a vaccine (lol) ...  but people here never heard of VIRAL SHEDDING after vaccination ...

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=VIRAL+SHEDDING+after+vaccination

10 minutes ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

super science from thailand, any scientific papers included?

 

dead virus ? lol

 

waf waf

 

cannot wait for a vaccine (lol) ...  but people here never heard of VIRAL SHEDDING after vaccination ...

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=VIRAL+SHEDDING+after+vaccination

Apparently, it's a matter of debate whether or not a virus is alive in the first place.  Viruses do not pass the criteria for life and are certainly not cell-based, as life forms are.  They can and do replicate though but need a host cell to do so. 

Strange thought in my head.

What's this?

 

 

3 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Strange thought in my head.

What's this?

 

 

A dead one of these.

1 hour ago, ourmanflint said:

This. D614G strain that ravaged USA and Europe has arrived in Malaysia, Thailand will have to deal with that eventually, and it will not be plain sailing like this year

I still remember being slammed for saying that the mutated strain found in Europe and North America was more infectious. It will find it's way into Thailand sooner or later considering that it's in Mtaylasia now. Taking into account incubation periods and such time lags, it might already be within the borders. That being said, I still think Thailand should open it's borders and try to resume normality, the overreaction is going do way more damage in the long run. 

 

       Plan B. 

Start a bucket list , always handy ..

       

The risk will be very low because people who don't die in hospital aren't tested. Those dying in hospital with other problems won't be tested for covid19 either. The all important thing is to keep the infection numbers down.

If they not infect nobody, why need go hospital!? Why hole Loei is panic mode if nothing chance to get it!

The second wave isn't going to start in Thailand. It will come from outside when the borders open and the quarantine requirement is softened.

??

2 hours ago, Sheryl said:

The article makes no sense at all.

 

You don't admit someone to hospital for being antibody positive if they are antigen negative. And a health certificate for work would nto normally require a COVID antibody test.

 

Having a very low viral load does not mean the viral particles are "dead". (Though it does render you less infectious).

 

I can only assume the reporters did nto understand the medical details and garbled them. And that bioth women tested positive for COVID antigen (not antibody) about 4 weeks after leaving quarantine with 2 initial negative tests.

The Reporters probably just reported what they were instructed to report.

Even with this report that is  (as you say Sheryl ) nonsense, why did these Women come bach to Thailand for just a short period of time before going back abroad ?

Even less sense.

3 hours ago, rkidlad said:

Friend asked me a while ago if we would have a second wave. I told him I didn't know but didn't seem likely as there wasn't really a first one. I did tell him that if the protests were to grow in size, they'd be mentioning more about a second wave. This seems to be it. 

Time will tell, on both counts.

Maybe they will both continue to grow, or the threat of a second wave will perpetuate a continuation of the emergency decree and the government will ban all protests.

But allow all other activities to continue.

2 hours ago, doctormann said:

Apparently, it's a matter of debate whether or not a virus is alive in the first place.  Viruses do not pass the criteria for life and are certainly not cell-based, as life forms are.  They can and do replicate though but need a host cell to do so. 

Meh, a better choice of words would have been 'viable virus' but I think we got the message.

 

2 hours ago, Mung said:

It will find it's way into Thailand sooner or later considering that it's in Mtaylasia now.

The 'Euro' strain of COVID called D614G has been in Thailand since March.

However, her virus result was suddenly positive, though it showed she had a small amount of genetic virus material in her body. She is being treated at the hospital, but doctors say she didn’t contract the virus from another person, which meant there was no risk of the virus spreading

 

However ????

Will these cases be reported and counted?

5 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Latest scientific news, covid19 are cells! 

Well I suppose since they have DNA (in the other thread), cells make sense. Hell of a mutation. Soon it's going to grow a head and arms.

40 minutes ago, ukrules said:

The 'Euro' strain of COVID called D614G has been in Thailand since March.

A small correction if I may .. the strains are D614 and G614. The mutation is what is called D614G. The logic is apparent, D changed to G.

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

Meh, a better choice of words would have been 'viable virus' but I think we got the message.

 

The 'Euro' strain of COVID called D614G has been in Thailand since March.

Not sure that is true, at least not according to info at this link D614G Mutation

27 minutes ago, ourmanflint said:

Not sure that is true, at least not according to info at this link D614G Mutation

It's been discussed here too:

 

7 hours ago, JusticeGB said:

The risk will be very low because people who don't die in hospital aren't tested. Those dying in hospital with other problems won't be tested for covid19 either. The all important thing is to keep the infection numbers down.

Much better approach than that in certain other countries where doctors were instructed to mark patients dying of other causes as covid-19 related "if it was only suspected that they had the virus or had come into contact with somebody who had contracted the virus". But then again, if hospitals are being refunded a good bit of moola for "treating" Covid-19 patients, what could possibly go wrong with reporting?

'Nothing to worry about' - Thailand seeks to ease fears of coronavirus return

By Panarat Thepgumpanat and Orathai Sriring

 

FILE PHOTO: A medical personnel performs a nose swab test on a local resident of a community in Bangkok, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Thailand, April 28, 2020. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File Photo

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand sought to allay fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections on Thursday, after a woman tested positive having cleared quarantine nearly two months ago on returning from overseas.

 

Thailand has gone 87 days without domestic transmission but news that a woman tested positive for COVID-19 in Bangkok on Tuesday, having returned from abroad on June 24, has triggered concern of a fresh outbreak in a country so far spared the level of contagion elsewhere.

 

Authorities said the woman was unlikely to be contagious and may have caught the virus in the United Arab Emirates or her home province of Loei, bordering Laos.

 

"She may have been infected in the past three months, probably in Dubai or Loei, but not Bangkok," Taweesin Wisanuyothin, spokesman for the government's COVID-19 task force, told a briefing.

 

He said the woman, 35, had tested negative twice since Tuesday and 24 people in contact with her in Loei and Bangkok would also be tested.

 

"There is nothing to worry about. She wears a mask all the time and is not sick anymore," Taweesin added.

 

Thailand is fast returning to normalcy having recorded just 58 COVID-19 deaths and 3,389 cases since January, a figure less than 2% of the Philippines' 178,000 cases, Southeast Asia's highest tally.

 

Some Asian nations thought to have had outbreaks under control have seen a resurgence, including Vietnam, where cases have more than doubled since the virus reappeared in July after three months without community infections.

 

Fears of the virus returning rattled Thai markets, with stocks falling as much as 1.2% on Thursday and the baht slipping 0.6%, on concerns it could further hamstring efforts to revive an economy headed for a record annual contraction.

 

Surasak Leelaudomlipi, head of Bangkok's Ramathibodi Hospital, said only traces of the virus were found in the woman and experts were "pretty sure" she was not infectious.

 

"To make society at ease, we found the genetic material of the virus, not a virus," Surasak said.

 

(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-08-21

 

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'Nothing to worry about'

That's the time to start worrying when they say 'Don't worry'