Maria Van Kerkhove then posted a WHO summary on transmission on Twitter.
Geneva, Switzerland:
A senior WHO official said on Tuesday that the transmission of the new coronavirus by asymptomatic carriers was “very rare”, citing a “misunderstanding”.
Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 technical officer for the World Health Organization, said that based on studies in several countries, transmission of the virus by an asymptomatic person seemed “very rare”.
“We have a number of country reports that do very detailed contact tracking. They follow asymptomatic cases, they follow contacts and they don’t find secondary transmission. It is very rare,” she said. said at a virtual press conference. Monday.
His remarks, widely relayed on social networks, triggered a reaction from part of the scientific community.
“Contrary to what WHO has announced, it is not scientifically possible to assert that asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 are not very contagious,” said Professor Gilbert Deray of Pitie- Salpêtrière in Paris on Twitter.
Liam Smeeth, professor of clinical epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said he was “quite surprised”.
“There is scientific uncertainty, but an asymptomatic infection could represent around 30 to 50% of cases. The best scientific studies to date suggest that up to half of the cases have been infected by asymptomatic or presymptomatic people”, a- he declared.
Van Kerkhove then posted a WHO summary on transmission on Twitter.
“It is difficult to conduct in-depth studies on the transmission of asymptomatic individuals, but the available evidence from contact tracing reported by member states suggests that asymptomatically infected individuals are much less likely to transmit the virus than those who develop symptoms, “said the report.
In a re-broadcast discussion on the WHO Twitter account Tuesday, Van Kerkhove said she wanted to clear up a misconception.
“I was referring to very few studies, two or three” and answered a question.
“I was not setting out a WHO policy,” she said.
“I used the expression” very rare “, and I think it’s a misunderstanding to say that asymptomatic transmission in the world is very rare. What I was referring to was the subset of studies “, she added.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
