The coronavirus continues to spread around the world, particularly in France, where thousands of new cases have been recorded in recent days. 98% of those infected would still recover from the infection. In any case, this was stated by the Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon on March 10. But how quickly can you recover from the disease?
The Sars-Cov-2 virus can cause various forms of Covid-19, which are more or less severe. But in 80% of cases, the disease would be mild. Management is then based solely on the treatment of symptoms (fever, cough, body aches, runny nose, etc.) with paracetamol. These generally disappear after a few days.
"Patients with mild upper or lower respiratory infection will have symptoms that will last less than 14 days (usually 5-10 days). cough which can persist for several weeks ", specifies Dr Henri Partouche, general practitioner and member of the specialized commission of infectious diseases, on BFMTV.
When patients are more severely affected by the disease, the infection can last longer. People affected by these severe forms are then hospitalized. In the absence of specific treatment against the coronavirus, they can be placed on oxygen or on ventilation.
Coronavirus and healing: what about contagiousness?
What do we know about the contagiousness of people cured of coronavirus? As a reminder, the incubation period of the coronavirus would extend up to 14 days, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with an average of around 5 days, as explained in a study published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. But in some patients, this duration may be even longer.
Another study, published in the journal The Lancet and conducted on 191 Chinese patients, revealed that some patients would remain contagious for up to 4 weeks after the onset of the first symptoms. If these results, which suggest that contagiousness could sometimes persist after healing, remain to be confirmed, they once again emphasize the importance of barrier gestures, such as:
- wash your hands very frequently;
- cough or sneeze into the crease of his elbow;
- use disposable tissues before disposing of them;
- do not shake hands and kiss;
- limit travel, gatherings and contacts in general.
Read also :
⋙ Coronavirus symptoms, incubation, contagion, treatments: everything you need to know about Covid-19
⋙ Covid-19: why anti-inflammatory drugs should be avoided in case of symptoms of the new coronavirus
⋙ Coronavirus Covid-19: how long can it contaminate air and different surfaces?