Can coronavirus reactivate in the body of a patient? Doctors on IndiaTV answer

The novel coronavirus which began from Wuhan city of China has now spread its wings to the rest of the world. Lakhs of people are being affected and many have lost their lives. However, the governments of various countries are trying their best to treat the patients who have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. Many are being treated in the hospitals and many have recovered from the illness. But many cases in South Korea and other countries have come up where people have being re-infected with the virus again. Even in India too, there have been cases where COVID-19 has reactivated in the bodies of the people who have tested positive for the virus previously. A panel of doctors on IndiaTV talk about the situation of relapse of the coronavirus and how to deal with the situation so that people do not get worried.

Doctors during the conversation say that sometimes the virus can get suppressed or get mutated that can cause it to re-grow again on the human body. When asked that what is the guarantee that the virus has died in the body of an individual who has tested negative twice, the doctors told that since it is a new virus, so little details about its characteristics are discovered. There is a possibility that it has the tendency to reactivate in the body like many other pathogens. Moreover, the condition can also be a result of a mishap with the test in the testing center or the laboratory that caused it to be found again in the body.

Doctors reveal that since there is not much information about the coronavirus, its behavior is very unpredictable. They further gave an example of chickenpox which can occur again in the body of a young person even after being affected by it in childhood.

Further, they said that the testing that is done can have a 25-30 percent false-negative rate which means that it can show negative despite the person being affected by a coronavirus. Secondly, after many days of being infected, the RNA of the virus still remains in the body which might be a reason why it can get retracted in the body of the patients.

Moreover, there are around 5 percent of people, in the bodies of whom antibodies don't form. They possess a higher risk of being re-infected with it. The swab sampling or transportation or technical mistake in the lab or maybe the reason behind the reactivation of the virus. Every person behaved differently to the virus and some cannot even form antibodies against it which is why they can get coronavirus again.

Doctors concluded by saying that it might take one and a half years to make the vaccine against the novel coronavirus and make it available to the people. But till then people should keep calm because the improvement will happen slowly and steadily as every pandemic comes to an end. 

Will using AC in house or car affect the activation of coronavirus?

Doctors say that there are relatively more positive in countries where there is cold. While in India, where the season of summers is approaching, people are confused about whether or not they should start using air conditioners or coolers. Speaking about the same, the doctors said the people should avoid using them right now because considering the nature of the virus because it can result in the virus staying on the surfaces for a longer period of time. However, research on the behaviour virus in summers or in air-conditioned environment is still to be made. They said that AC possesses a danger if the virus is present in your house because of the air suction that takes place or due to low ventilation in homes. Further details are awaited on the reaction on the virus in the temperature of the air conditioner.