Healthcare workers are getting in contact with many Corona Virus patients daily. And thus, according to the theory it means that since they get in contact with more people with the disease they have the higher risk of the coronavirus over time.
Does it actually mean that they are at greater risk of getting affected the disease, as per the suggestions of report?
As we know, some diseases that the dose of virus that an individual is getting exposed to will directly depend on how critical the disease is. For example, A research in 2015 by the US scientists showed that if high dose of influenza virus is given to a healthy volunteer, the symptoms in them get worse.
Viruses are minute particles that will replicate only if it gets into our cells. Thus,if there are more starting virus particles then more cells will be infected. Moreover, we also know that viruses replicate exponentially. Even a single cell with infection can replicate to hundreds and thousands copies of the particle. Thus, a tiny dose of virus can cause huge devastation.
Like, for Corona virus it just takes 18 minutes to cause an infection in half the population. This can result in classic clinical signs of diarrhoea and vomiting. In case of Corona virus it replicates so rapidly that the starting dose can get much less relevant.
Is the disease’s severity dependent on starting dose of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19)?
At present, its not known. The only way to find an answer for this question is to do experimental challenge studies. And this will need intentionally putting the infection in healthy volunteers. Then only the scientists will be able to study diseases and its treatments.