THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Suresh (name changed), a fabricator by profession and local office-bearer of a political party at Pallipuram in Thrissur, developed symptoms of Covid-19 by the end of September. However, he continued to go to work as usual as the symptoms were mild and he was the breadwinner of the family. A few days later, his wife started showing Covid symptoms and they treated themselves by taking paracetamol and other tablets. Around 10 days later, Suresh’s two aged parents started showing symptoms like fever, throat pain and headache.
When the entire family was down with fever, they reported to the local health authorities and Suresh’s parents tested positive for the virus while he and his wife tested negative in the antigen testing. A health officer who was privy to the development said their source of infection is unknown as the two aged parents have no primary contact with Covid patients. Since their son and daughter-in-law tested negative for the virus, their contact lists were not traced.
The health department thinks that Suresh might have contracted Covid-19 initially and the entire family was infected. But by the time their parents developed symptoms, Suresh and his wife might have recovered. For confirming the virus presence, antigen testing is being done, but only the infected people at the time of the test would test positive. It means since they have not sought medical treatment when they first developed symptoms, the couple might have become super spreaders of the virus.
This is one of the main challenges Kerala is facing now. Even as there is a shortage of ICU beds and ventilators across the state to treat Covid patients, there is a growing trend among people to skip the Covid test despite having symptoms. Health workers on the ground testify that a good number of people who have suspected Covid symptoms are not ready to undergo Covid tests for the fear that they would be quarantined if they test positive. On the other hand, they prefer to seek medical treatment only if severe symptoms develop. This attitude hampers the health department’s efforts to check the spread of the disease at a time when the test positivity rate in the state touched 17.46 per cent as on Saturday.
Dr Aravind R, member of the state’s expert committee for Covid-19, said, “This is a major issue faced by the state. Creating public awareness is the only solution to avoid such situations. People are to some extent ready to follow the precautions like using masks and sanitisers, but the fight against virus will yield results only if there is support from the public,” he said.
Need for caution
Kerala’s nodal officer for public health emergencies (coronavirus and H1N1) Dr Amar Fettle said the situation would be tougher if people go around even after they develop symptoms. It’s also not possible to subject every suspected person to the RT-PCR test which has more accuracy than the antigen test.