Coronavirus cases appear to have grown milder over time, demonstrating decreased viral loads, less severe symptoms and fewer hospitalizations, a new study shows.
Researchers from Wayne State University examined 700 nose and throat samples from patients hospitalized at the Detroit Medical Center between April and June and what they found is quite promising.
The average amount of viral load decreased significantly in the 3-month time span.
During the first week of the study, nearly half the samples were found to have high viral loads, while only a fourth had low viral loads. Participants who had high viral loads were more likely to develop more severe symptoms, with 14 percent of those patients dying, according to the New York Post.
But, by the study’s fifth week, 70 percent of the samples showed a low viral load, per the report.
“As the pandemic progressed, there were fewer deaths, fewer hospitalizations, and the patients had lower amounts of the virus at the time of admission,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Pranatharthi Chandrasekar, told Business Insider, via the New York Post.
Chandrasekar added that the research may also be an indication that safety measures – like social distancing protocols, wearing masks and increased handwashing – have lowered the number of virus people have been exposed to since the pandemic’s initial blow last March.
“All those social measures we were taking and teaching may have something to do with the people coming in with lower and lower amounts of virus,” Chandrasekar said.
“As they got exposed to people while they’re wearing masks, they are probably getting exposed to a smaller quantity of the virus.”
Chandrasekar said people exposed to a lower dose of the virus likely don’t experience as vicious an immune system response, resulting in milder symptoms – or even being asymptomatic – and a lower chance of death.
Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco who was not affiliated with the study, says this may be a breakthrough discovery.
“This is the first study to show this systematically,” she said. “A low viral load from swabs likely indicates an ability to control the viral infection better and, therefore, have less severe disease.”
