Monitored and investigated by scientists around the world,
the new coronavirus continues to pose many unknowns three months after its
appearance in China.
- Why is it benign for some and very serious for others? -
The extreme variability of its impact among patients is not
surprising. Why does COVID-19 cause no or few symptoms in 80% of cases,
according to the WHO, while in others it causes a strong fever and even fatal
pneumonia?
"Research since February 2020 shows that the clinical
spectrum of this disease can be very heterogeneous," confirms Leo Poon of
the Hong Kong Faculty of Medicine.
During the peak of the epidemic in China, Poon compared with
a Chinese team from Nanchang University (center), a group of little affected
patients with seriously ill.
Results published in the British medical journal The Lancet
showed that the graver patients were "much older", with a virus
concentration "about 60% higher" than among the less affected
patients.
Is this due to an insufficient immune reaction due to age,
or is it due to exposure to higher doses of the virus?
Measles studies showed that severity was related to the dose
of initial exposure to the virus. The answer for COVID-19 is unknown.
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