SARS-CoV-2 transmission without symptoms

Symptomless transmission silently drives viral spread and is key to ending the pandemic Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a potentially long incubation period and spreads opportunistically among those who are unaware they are infected. Asymptomatic COVID-19 cases are t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScience Vol. 371; no. 6535; pp. 1206 - 1207
Main Authors Rasmussen, Angela L, Popescu, Saskia V
Format Journal Article Web Resource
LanguageEnglish
Published United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 19.03.2021
Subjects
Asymptomatic
Asymptomatic Infections - epidemiology
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - diagnosis
COVID-19 - epidemiology
COVID-19 - transmission
COVID-19 - virology
COVID-19 Testing
Disease transmission
Epidemiological Monitoring
Humans
Hygiene
Infections
Pandemics
Personal hygiene
Prevalence
Respiratory diseases
SARS-CoV-2 - physiology
Severe acute respiratory syndrome
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Signs and symptoms
Viral diseases
Viral Load
Virus Shedding
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Summary:Symptomless transmission silently drives viral spread and is key to ending the pandemic Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a potentially long incubation period and spreads opportunistically among those who are unaware they are infected. Asymptomatic COVID-19 cases are those that do not develop symptoms for the duration of infection, whereas presymptomatic cases develop symptoms later in the course of infection, but both are crucial drivers of transmission ( 1 ). Transmission without symptoms poses specific challenges for determining the infectious timeline and potential exposures. Early in the pandemic, most transmission was from undocumented cases, suggesting that spread was driven by people who were either asymptomatic or experiencing such mild disease that it was not recognized as COVID-19 ( 2 ). Contagious people without observable signs of illness make infection prevention efforts vulnerable to compliance with masking, distancing, hand hygiene, symptom screening, and ultimately, people staying home when possible. The lack of widespread testing in asymptomatic individuals further complicates COVID-19 mitigation and control efforts.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.abf9569