Sharing a bed and regular sexual activity would be a moderate Covid risk. This is what emerges from a study conducted by Altamedica Medical Center in Rome, which evaluated the transmission of Sars-CoV-2 virus in 40 family clusters of 110 members (80 parents and 30 children) who lived in close contact with spouses affected by Covid-19 during lockdown. Virus transmission between the two spouses was detected by serological testing to assess the presence of virus-specific IgM and IgG.
In 65% of the households (26 families) evaluated, virus transmission between the two spouses was identified, while the remaining 35% (14 families) reported the presence of a negative serological test in the other spouse, so the transmission of Sars-CoV-2 between the two spouses was not identified, although 71% (10 families out of 14) did not maintain any spacing at home. Moreover, only two children (both boys), aged 22 and 30, respectively, were infected by the affected parent, while the remaining 28 children aged 1 to 30 did not contract the virus.
"The evaluation of the Covid-19 outbreak in family clusters opens new questions about viral transmission - explains Claudio Giorlandino, gynaecologist, scientific director of the Altamedica Health Group and director general of the Italian College of Fetal Maternal Medicine - Quarantine does not seem to have protected families more than virulence itself".
"The data showed that in 35% of the families the spouses, although living together, sleeping in the same bed, breathing the same air and eating from the same flow rates, did not transmit the virus to their partner and even less to their children. So intimacy does not hurt, on the contrary, in the outpatient cluster examined would even seem to be protective for those infected by the partner because it does not show symptoms. This opens up a consideration: in addition to social distancing - he emphasizes - it takes common sense. If the contagion is not mathematical in the same family, it will not be so even in the street, admitted to come into contact with a positive. Moreover, those who do not show symptoms" seems "not very infectious and even in case of contagion the virus will be not very aggressive".
In detail, the study shows that among the 26 families with viral transmission between the two spouses, the presence of the virus was recorded in 10 women and 16 men. Only 10 spouses affected by Covid-19 showed the presence of symptoms (modest), while the other 16 were asymptomatic. Family spacing was implemented in only 2 out of 26 families. Of the 12 children living with Covid-19 in these 26 families, only one tested positive for serological testing, particularly in one of the families where no spacing measures were taken.
The 14 families with no viral transmission, consisting of 6 affected women and 8 affected men and their spouses, lived at home with 18 children (10 boys and 8 girls) between 1 and 30 years of age, who tested negative for serological testing. Among these 14 families, only 4 maintained the distance in the house after the appearance of the first symptoms, such as fever and anosmia. The remaining 10, despite the presence in 4 of a paucisymptomatic spouse, decided not to adopt spacing rules at home, thus sharing the same bed and using the same spaces. The lack of spacing in the house, the researchers conclude, was also reported in the last 6 families where the patients were completely asymptomatic.
Source: https://bit.ly/2D2092Z
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