Faits, mythes et informations sur les coronavirus: réponses à vos questions

Il est trop tôt pour en être sûr. Mais d'autres coronavirus, comme ceux qui causent le rhume, pourraient nous donner des indices.

Avec «les coronavirus communs froids, vous n'avez pas réellement d'immunité qui dure très longtemps, et donc nous ne connaissons pas la réponse avec ce coronavirus spécifique», a déclaré le Dr Celine Gounder, professeur de médecine et de maladies infectieuses au New École de médecine de l'Université York.

"Cela va en fait être l'un des défis de la conception d'un vaccin, c'est comment faire en sorte que l'immunité dure suffisamment longtemps pour vous protéger."

Top healthcare officials say the US does not have enough stockpiled medical equipment like masks, gowns and gloves to meet the anticipated need as this pandemic grows.

There are several reasons hospitals are on track to face dire shortages, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert and professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

“About 20 or 30 years ago, we decided that we would not over-hospitalize,” Schaffner said.

Back then, hospitals often had empty hospital beds for new patients. But now, many hospitals are “absolutely full,” Schaffner said. “We have under-built hospital beds because they are very expensive.”

Also, Americans have grown accustomed to “just-in-time” ordering. But that becomes a huge problem when international supply chains are disrupted by an outbreak. “We didn’t anticipate international turbulence influencing this,” Schaffner said.

Now, some health care workers are making their own masks. They’ve also been told they can use bandanas or scarves as masks.

There’s currently no cure for the novel coronavirus. And while research is underway, it could be more than a year before a vaccine becomes publicly available.

An antiviral drug must be able to target the specific part of a virus’s life cycle that is necessary for it to reproduce, according to Harvard Medical School.

“In addition, an antiviral drug must be able to kill a virus without killing the human cell it occupies. And viruses are highly adaptive.”

Rester à la maison. Call your doctor to talk about your symptoms and let them know you’re coming for an appointment so they can prepare for your visit, the CDC says.

Only a Covid-19 test can diagnose you with the virus, but if you suspect you have it, isolate yourself at home.

Many patients with coronavirus are able to recover at home. If you’ve been diagnosed and your illness is worsening, seek medical attention promptly. You may need to be monitored in a hospital.

Ask your physician to call the local or state health department, too, so they’re aware that you’re being monitored for the virus.

Stay at least 6 feet away from others, and wash your hands often.

The best way to kill germs is by scrubbing your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds. Do this frequently before, during and after you visit a public place or have contact with people.

When soap isn’t available, use a hand sanitizer. Rub the sanitizer around your hands until it’s dry.

Stay home as much as possible and limit your contact with people.

No. Those products work on surfaces but can be dangerous to your body.

There are some chemical disinfectants, including bleach, 75% ethanol, peracetic acid and chloroform, that may kill the virus on surfaces.

But if the virus is already in your body, putting those substances on your skin or under your nose won’t kill it, the World Health Organization says. Not to mention, those chemicals can harm you.

And please – do not ingest chemical disinfectants.

Absolument. The vast majority of people with coronavirus survive.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has estimated the death rate is “about 2%.”

“It takes anything up to six weeks to recover from this disease,” said Dr. Michael Ryan of the World Health Organization.

“People who suffer very severe illness can take months to recover from the illness.”

Recovery is often marked by a patient no longer showing symptoms and having two consecutive negative tests at least one day apart, Ryan said. But there is no known cure for the novel coronavirus.

Some people with coronavirus have mild or no symptoms. And in some cases, symptoms don’t appear until up to 14 days after infection.

During that incubation period, it’s possible to get coronavirus from someone with no symptoms. It’s also possible you may have coronavirus without feeling sick and are accidentally infecting others.

So anyone who has had close contact with someone known to have coronavirus should ask a health care provider about getting tested, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Experts say it’s due to cuts in federal funding for public health and problems with early testing.

Problems with public health infrastructure Two years ago, the CDC stopped funding epidemic prevention activities in 39 countries, including China. This happened because the Trump administration refused to allocate money to a program that started during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

Former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden warned that move “would significantly increase the chance an epidemic will spread without our knowledge and endanger lives in our country and around the world.”

Problems with the testing Malfunctions, shortages and delays in availability have all contributed to the slowdown.

In the first few weeks of the outbreak in the US, the CDC was the only facility in the country that could confirm test results — even though a World Health Organization test became available around the same time.

Some test kits that were sent around the country were flawed — a move that put the US behind about “four to five weeks,” says Dr. Rob Davidson, executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare.

No, antibiotics are not effective against coronavirus because the disease is a viral infection, not a bacterial infection.

“However, if you are hospitalized for the (coronavirus), you may receive antibiotics because bacterial co-infection is possible,” the World Health Organization says.

There is no known cure for the coronavirus. Researchers are studying whether the antiviral drug remdesivir might work, but testing of that drug just started.

For now, coronavirus patients get “supportive” treatment, “which means giving fluids, medicine to reduce fever, and, in severe cases, supplemental oxygen,” the Harvard Medical School says.