Disease Where Life Support Is Needed Then Can Be Taken Off Learn to Walk Again

If you lot've been exposed, are sick, or are caring for someone with COVID-19

If you've been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or begin to experience symptoms of the disease, you may exist asked to self-quarantine or self-isolate. What does that entail, and what can you exercise to prepare yourself for an extended stay at dwelling house? How before long after you lot're infected volition you start to be contagious? And what can you do to prevent others in your household from getting sick?

Visit our Coronavirus Resource Center for more information on coronavirus and COVID-19.

Spring to: Symptoms | Testing | Antibodies | Contagiousness | Long Term Effects

Symptoms of COVID-19

What are the symptoms of COVID-nineteen?

Some people infected with the virus have no symptoms. When the virus does cause symptoms, mutual ones include fever, body ache, dry cough, fatigue, chills, headache, sore pharynx, loss of appetite, and loss of olfactory property. In some people, COVID-xix causes more than severe symptoms like loftier fever, astringent cough, and shortness of breath, which oft indicates pneumonia.

People with COVID-19 tin can also experience neurological symptoms, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, or both. These may occur with or without respiratory symptoms.

For case, COVID-19 affects brain part in some people. Specific neurological symptoms seen in people with COVID-19 include loss of scent, inability to sense of taste, muscle weakness, tingling or numbness in the easily and feet, dizziness, confusion, delirium, seizures, and stroke.

In addition, some people have gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, such as loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain or discomfort associated with COVID-19.

What should I do if I remember I or my kid may have a COVID-nineteen infection?

Start, call your doc or pediatrician for advice.

If yous do not have a physician and you lot are concerned that you or your kid may accept COVID-nineteen, contact your local board of health. They can directly you to the all-time place for testing and treatment in your expanse. Over-the-counter tests may as well be available at your local pharmacy or grocery shop.

If you lot exercise exam positive and either have no symptoms or can recover at home, you volition still need to

• isolate at home for 5 days
• if you accept no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, you can discontinue isolation and go out your home
• keep to wear a mask effectually others for five boosted days.

If you have a fever, go on to isolate at abode until you no longer accept a fever.

If you have a loftier or very low trunk temperature, shortness of jiff, defoliation, or feeling you might pass out, you need to seek firsthand medical evaluation. Call the urgent care center or emergency department ahead of time to permit the staff know that you are coming, and then they tin exist prepared for your arrival.

How do I know if I have COVID-19, the flu, or just a common cold?

Now that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the dominant strain, telling the divergence is more challenging than ever. Even if y'all have been vaccinated and boosted, you tin nevertheless go symptoms, but they are likely to exist mild to moderate in severity. For those not vaccinated, the gamble of astringent symptoms that can be life-threatening is still substantial.

At the current fourth dimension, people with "flulike" symptoms should assume they have COVID. If possible, arrange to go tested or do a home test. If the test is positive, y'all should isolate at habitation for five days. If you had a negative exam when symptoms started, information technology'due south still best to isolate at dwelling house for 2 to iii more than days, to monitor your symptoms and foreclose spreading infection. (That'southward because there is a gamble of false negatives with antigen tests, which means you tin still have COVID with a negative test.) Consider testing once again before going out. Once you are set up to leave home, go along to consistently wear a mask for at least five more than days.

COVID-nineteen Testing

I recently spent fourth dimension with someone who tested positive for COVID-nineteen. I'm fully vaccinated and additional. Do I need to go tested?

According to the latest CDC guidelines, if you lot are vaccinated and boosted, or have gotten your initial vaccine serial inside the last six months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the last 2 months (for Johnson & Johnson), you should wear a mask around others for 10 days and accept a COVID examination on day 5, if possible. If you develop symptoms, become tested sooner and isolate at abode.

If yous are unvaccinated, had your terminal Pfizer or Moderna shot more than than six months ago and have not been boosted, or had your Johnson & Johnson testify more than two months ago and have not been boosted, y'all should stay abode for 5 days and wear a mask around others for an additional 5 days. If you can't quarantine, vesture a mask around others for x days. Get tested for COVID on day 5, if possible. If you develop symptoms at any time, go tested and isolate at home.

What is the difference between a PCR exam and an antigen examination for COVID-19?

PCR tests and antigen tests are both diagnostic tests, which means that they can be used to determine whether you lot currently have an active coronavirus infection. However, at that place are important differences between these two types of tests.

PCR tests detect the presence of the virus's genetic material using a technique called reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR. For this test, a sample may be nerveless through a nasal or throat swab, or a saliva sample may exist used. The sample is typically sent to a laboratory where coronavirus RNA (if present) is extracted from the sample and converted into Deoxyribonucleic acid. The DNA is so amplified, meaning that many copies of the viral Deoxyribonucleic acid are made, in order to produce a measurable result. The accuracy of whatever diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was collected properly, when during the course of disease the testing was washed, and whether the sample was maintained in advisable conditions while it was shipped to the laboratory. More often than not speaking, PCR tests are highly accurate.

Antigen tests detect specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to every bit rapid diagnostic tests considering it can take less than an hr to get the examination results. Positive antigen exam results are highly specific, meaning that if you test positive you are very likely to be infected. However, there is a college chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative result cannot definitively rule out an active infection. If you lot take a negative result on an antigen test, your doctor may order a PCR exam or a second rapid antigen test to confirm the outcome.

It may be helpful to think of a COVID antigen exam as you would remember of a rapid strep test or a rapid flu test. A positive result for any of these tests is likely to be authentic, and allows diagnosis and treatment to begin quickly, while a negative outcome oftentimes results in further testing to confirm or overturn the initial upshot.

How reliable are the tests for COVID-19?

Two types of diagnostic tests are currently available in the The states. PCR tests find viral RNA. Antigen tests, also called rapid diagnostic tests, find specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. Antigen test results may come back in as lilliputian equally 15 to 45 minutes; you may wait several days for PCR exam results.

The accurateness of any diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was collected properly. For PCR tests, which are typically analyzed in a laboratory, exam results may be affected by the conditions in which the exam was shipped to the laboratory.

Results may also be affected by the timing of the test. For example, if you are tested on the solar day you were infected, your test outcome is well-nigh guaranteed to come up back negative, because there are not yet plenty viral particles in your nose or saliva to observe. The chance of getting a false negative test result decreases if you are tested a few days later on you were infected, or a few days after you develop symptoms.

More often than not speaking, if a test outcome comes back positive, it is almost certain that the person is infected.

A negative test effect is less definite. There is a higher hazard of false negatives with antigen tests, and early data suggests that antigen tests may be even more likely to miss the Omicron variant. If y'all accept a negative upshot on an antigen test, your physician may order a PCR test or recommend a 2d rapid antigen exam to ostend the consequence.

If yous feel COVID-like symptoms and go a negative PCR exam result, there is no reason to repeat the exam unless your symptoms become worse. If your symptoms do worsen, telephone call your physician or local or land healthcare department for guidance on farther testing. Yous should besides self-isolate at abode. Wear a mask when interacting with members of your household. And practice physical distancing.

What is serologic (antibiotic) testing for COVID-nineteen? What tin can it be used for?

A serologic test is a blood examination that looks for antibodies to SARS-CoV-ii created by your allowed system in response to infection or vaccination.

Your body takes 1 to 3 weeks later on you take acquired the infection to develop antibodies to this virus. For this reason, serologic tests are not sensitive enough to accurately diagnose an active COVID-xix infection, even in people with symptoms.

Antibodies and Spreading COVID-xix

I've heard that the allowed organisation produces different types of antibodies when a person is infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. How do they differ? Why is this of import?

When a person gets or is vaccinated confronting a viral or bacterial infection, a salubrious allowed organisation makes antibodies against ane or more components of the virus or bacterium.

The COVID-xix coronavirus contains ribonucleic acrid (RNA) surrounded by a protective layer, which has fasten proteins on the outer surface that can latch on to certain human cells. Once inside the cells, the viral RNA starts to replicate and likewise turns on the production of proteins, both of which allow the virus to infect more cells and spread throughout the body, especially to the lungs.

While the immune organisation could potentially reply to different parts of the virus, information technology'southward the spike proteins that get the about attention. Immune cells recognize the spike proteins as a foreign substance and begin producing antibodies in response.

In that location are two main categories of antibodies:

Binding antibodies. These antibodies tin can demark to either the fasten poly peptide or a unlike protein known as the nucleocapsid protein. Binding antibodies tin be detected with claret tests starting virtually one week later on the initial infection. If antibodies are found, it's extremely probable that the person has been infected with the COVID-nineteen coronavirus. The antibiotic level declines over time afterward an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

Binding antibodies help fight the infection, simply they might not offer protection against getting reinfected in the future. It depends on whether they are also neutralizing antibodies.

Neutralizing antibodies. The torso makes neutralizing antibodies that attack the coronavirus's spike protein, making it more hard for the virus to attach to and enter human cells. Neutralizing antibodies provide more lasting protection than bounden antibodies against reinfection.

Monoclonal antibodies are manmade versions of neutralizing antibodies. The FDA has authorized monoclonal antibody treatments for sure groups of COVID-19 patients.

Can a person who has been infected with coronavirus get infected again?

The immune arrangement responds to COVID-19 infection past stimulating white blood cells chosen lymphocytes to course antibodies that fight the infection. These antibodies and lymphocytes retain a temporary protective upshot against reinfection. But it is only temporary. There have been many confirmed cases of reinfection with COVID-19. In other words, a person got sick with COVID-19, recovered, and then became infected again.

This has been peculiarly truthful as the coronavirus has mutated into COVID-19 variants. At that place was a ascent in reinfections with the Delta variant, and an explosive increase in the reinfection rate due to the Omicron variant. Omicron has nearly l mutations, including more than 30 mutations on the spike protein, the region of the virus that our immune systems recognize after previous infection. Because of this, Omicron is more capable than previous variants of evading our immune defenses and causing reinfection.

Nosotros accept learned that vaccination plus a booster dose strengthens the natural immune response, fifty-fifty in those who have been previously infected, and farther reduces the risk of reinfection. Although breakthrough infections after vaccination are also more common with Omicron than previous variants, vaccination continues to protect well against severe affliction.

The bottom line? Go vaccinated and boosted whether or not you've already had COVID-xix.

Contagiousness of COVID-19

How soon after I'thou infected with the new coronavirus volition I start to be contagious?

The time from exposure to symptom onset (known every bit the incubation period) is thought to be two to 14 days. Symptoms typically appeared inside 5 days for early on variants, and within four days for the Delta variant. The incubation menstruation appears to be even shorter – about iii days – for the Omicron variant.

We know that people tend to be almost infectious early in the form of their infection. With Omicron, well-nigh transmission occurs during the one to two days before onset of symptoms, and in the 2 to 3 days afterwards.

Wearing masks, particularly indoors, can help reduce the risk that someone who is infected but not still experiencing symptoms may unknowingly infect others.

Can people without symptoms spread the virus to others?

"Without symptoms" tin can refer to 2 groups of people: those who somewhen do accept symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never continue to have symptoms (asymptomatic). During this pandemic, we have seen that people without symptoms tin can spread the coronavirus infection to others.

A person with COVID-nineteen may be contagious 48 hours before starting to experience symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may be more likely to spread the illness, because they are unlikely to be isolating and may not adopt behaviors designed to prevent spread.

Just what about people who never go on to develop symptoms? A study published inJAMA Network Open up found that well-nigh i out of every four infections may be transmitted by individuals with asymptomatic infections. The proportion of asymptomatic manual appears to exist even higher with the Omicron variant.

Getting vaccinated and boosted in one case you are eligible is important for protecting non just yourself but others also; evidence suggests that you're less probable to infect others, or may exist contagious for a shorter menstruum of fourth dimension, once you've been vaccinated.

For how long after I am infected will I continue to exist contagious? At what point in my illness will I be well-nigh contagious?

People are thought to exist nigh contagious early in the class of their illness. With Omicron, most transmission appears to occur during the one to ii days earlier onset of symptoms, and in the ii to three days after. People with no symptoms tin besides spread the coronavirus to others.

By the 10th solar day after COVID symptoms begin, most people will no longer be contagious, every bit long as their symptoms take continued to improve and their fever has resolved. People who test positive for the virus simply never develop symptoms over the following ten days after testing are besides probably no longer contagious.

The CDC's isolation guidelines, updated in December 2021, reverberate this noesis. Co-ordinate to the guidelines, everyone who tests positive for COVID-xix should

• isolate at habitation for 5 days
• if you accept no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, yous can discontinue isolation and leave your home
• continue to wear a mask effectually others for five additional days.

If you lot have a fever, proceed to isolate at home until you no longer have a fever.

I'thou vaccinated simply got a breakthrough COVID infection. Tin can I yet spread the infection to others?

Aye, you can. That'due south why the CDC recommends that everyone who tests positive for COVID-xix should isolate from others for at least five days, regardless of their vaccination status.

How can I protect myself while caring for someone that may accept COVID-xix?

You should take many of the same precautions as you would if y'all were caring for someone with the flu:

• Stay in another room or be separated from the person as much as possible. Use a split bedchamber and bath, if bachelor.
• Make certain that shared spaces in the home have good air flow. If possible, open a window.
• Launder your hands often with soap and water for at to the lowest degree 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains 60 to 95% alcohol, roofing all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry. Apply soap and h2o if your hands are visibly dirty.
• Avoid touching your optics, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• You lot and the person should wear a confront mask if you are in the same room.
• Habiliment a dispensable face mask and gloves when you touch or have contact with the person's blood, stool, or torso fluids, such every bit saliva, sputum, nasal fungus, vomit, urine.
  • Throw out disposable face up masks and gloves after using them. Practise not reuse.
  • First remove and throw away gloves. Then, immediately clean your easily with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Next, remove and throw away the face mask, and immediately clean your easily again with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Do non share household items such as dishes, drinking spectacles, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with the person who is sick. After the person uses these items, wash them thoroughly.
• Clean all "high-impact" surfaces, such as counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every solar day. Also, clean any surfaces that may accept blood, stool, or trunk fluids on them. Apply a household cleaning spray or wipe.
  • Wash laundry thoroughly.
  • Immediately remove and wash clothes or bedding that have claret, stool, or trunk fluids on them.
• Clothing disposable gloves while handling soiled items and keep soiled items abroad from your body. Clean your hands immediately afterward removing your gloves.
• Place all used disposable gloves, face masks, and other contaminated items in a lined container before disposing of them with other household waste. Clean your hands (with lather and h2o or an booze-based hand sanitizer) immediately afterward handling these items.

Can people infect pets with the COVID-19 virus?

The virus that causes COVID-nineteen does appear to spread from people to pets, according to the FDA, though this is uncommon. Enquiry has establish that cats and ferrets are more probable to go infected than dogs.

If you become sick with COVID-nineteen, information technology'southward best to restrict contact with your pets, just similar you would around other people. This means you lot should forgo petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing food or bedding with your pet until you are feeling amend. When possible, have another fellow member of your household intendance for your pets while you are sick. If you must care for your pet while you lot are ill, launder your hands before and after yous interact with your pets and article of clothing a face mask.

At present, it is considered unlikely that pets tin can spread the COVID-nineteen virus to humans. However, pets can spread other infections that cause illness, includingE. coli and Salmonella, so launder your hands thoroughly with soap and h2o after interacting with your animal companions.

Long Term Effects of COVID-xix

I had COVID-19 a few months ago. Am I at increased risk for wellness problems in the future?

It does announced that people who recover from COVID-nineteen take an increased risk of developing other medical conditions, at least in the short term.

One study, published inThe BMJ, collected laboratory exam and infirmary admissions information from a wellness program in the United states of america. The researchers compared data from more than than 190,000 adults, ages 18 to 65 years, who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-two virus in 2020, to data from a control grouping that was collected in 2019, earlier the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for six months after they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and recorded any new health complications.

They found that 14% of people who had had COVID-nineteen developed a new medical issue during the post-obit six months; this was nearly five% higher than the pre-pandemic control group, a significant divergence. New medical issues afflicted a range of trunk systems and included respiratory failure, abnormal heart rhythms, diabetes, neurological problems, and liver and kidney problems. Increased risk was seen in younger, previously healthy people, merely was higher in older people and those with pre-existing medical problems.

Another study, published inNature, compared the health records of more 73,000 users of the Veteran'southward Wellness Assistants (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 but were never hospitalized, to those of nearly five million other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-nineteen and were never hospitalized. For half-dozen months following the offset 30 days subsequently infection, people who had had COVID-19 were significantly more than probable to die or to experience a medical or mental wellness problem that they had never had earlier.

These studies provide yet another reason to go vaccinated and boosted if you lot are eligible.

Who are long-haulers? And what is postal service-viral syndrome?

Long haulers are people who accept not fully recovered from COVID-xix weeks or fifty-fifty months after first experiencing symptoms. Some long haulers experience continuous symptoms for weeks or months, while others feel better for weeks, then relapse with quondam or new symptoms. The constellation of symptoms long haulers experience, sometimes called postal service-COVID-nineteen syndrome or post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), is non unique to this infection. Other infections, such as Lyme affliction, tin cause similar long-lasting symptoms.

Emerging research may help predict who volition become a long hauler. One study found that COVID-19 patients who experienced more than 5 symptoms during their first week of illness were significantly more likely to become long haulers. Sure symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty breathing, a hoarse voice, and muscle or body aches — experienced alone or in combination during the first week of disease also increased the chances of becoming a long hauler, as did increasing age and higher body mass index (BMI).

Though these factors may increase the likelihood of long-term symptoms, anyone can become a long hauler. Many long haulers initially have mild to moderate symptoms — or no symptoms at all — and practise not require hospitalization. Previously healthy young adults, not merely older adults with circumstantial medical conditions, are likewise experiencing post-COVID-19 syndrome.

Symptoms of postal service-COVID-19 syndrome, similar symptoms of COVID-19 itself, can vary widely. Some of the more than mutual lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activeness, brain fog, shortness of jiff, chills, body ache, headache, joint hurting, breast hurting, cough, and lingering loss of taste or smell. Many long haulers study cognitive dysfunction or memory loss that affects their day-to-24-hour interval ability to do things similar brand decisions, accept conversations, follow instructions, and drive. The common thread is that long haulers haven't returned to their pre-COVID health, and ongoing symptoms are negatively affecting their quality of life. A systematic review published in JAMA Network Open reported that more than half of people infected with COVID-xix connected to experience at least one symptom six months after their diagnosis.

There'southward already some speculation, but no definite answers, about what is causing these ongoing symptoms. Some researchers doubtable that SARS-CoV-ii infection triggers long-lasting changes in the allowed organization. Others suggest that information technology triggers autonomic nervous arrangement dysregulation, which tin impact eye rate, blood force per unit area, and sweating, among other things.

Blog posts:

• Could COVID-19 infection exist responsible for your depressed mood or anxiety?
• What is COVID-xix brain fog — and how can you clear it?
• The tragedy of the postal service-COVID "long haulers"
• The hidden long-term cognitive effects of COVID
• Which test is best for COVID-19?
• Allergies? Common common cold? Flu? Or COVID-19?

Podcast:

You think you've got COVID-19. Here's what you need to do (recorded 4/x/20)

We asked Dr. Mallika Marshall, medical reporter for CBS-affiliate WBZ Television in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, how we should react when we start to experience a dry coughing or perhaps spike a fever. Who do you telephone call? How do you protect your family? When does it make sense to motility toward an emergency department, and how should we set? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Wellness Publishing'southward online course serial, and an urgent care physician at Mass General Hospital.

Visit our Coronavirus Resource Center for more than information on coronavirus and COVID-xix.

Share this folio:

• Share this page to Facebook
• Share this page to Twitter
• Share this page to Google Plus
• Email this page

As a service to our readers, Harvard Wellness Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please notation the engagement of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of appointment, should e'er be used as a substitute for direct medical communication from your doctor or other qualified clinician.

booneplack2001.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/if-youve-been-exposed-to-the-coronavirus