what to do if youve been exposed to influenza a

If yous've been exposed, are sick, or are caring for someone with COVID-19

Woman taking care of sick relative

If you've been exposed to someone with COVID-xix or begin to experience symptoms of the illness, you may exist asked to cocky-quarantine or self-isolate. What does that entail, and what tin can you practise to prepare yourself for an extended stay at dwelling? How soon afterward you're infected will you start to be contagious? And what can yous do to prevent others in your household from getting sick?

Visit our Coronavirus Resources Center for more information on coronavirus and COVID-19.

Jump to: Symptoms | Testing | Antibodies | Contagiousness | Long Term Furnishings

Symptoms of COVID-19

What are the symptoms of COVID-nineteen?

Some people infected with the virus have no symptoms. When the virus does cause symptoms, common ones include fever, body ache, dry out coughing, fatigue, chills, headache, sore pharynx, loss of appetite, and loss of aroma. In some people, COVID-19 causes more severe symptoms similar high fever, severe cough, and shortness of jiff, which often indicates pneumonia.

People with COVID-xix can also experience neurological symptoms, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, or both. These may occur with or without respiratory symptoms.

For example, COVID-19 affects brain function in some people. Specific neurological symptoms seen in people with COVID-xix include loss of smell, inability to taste, muscle weakness, tingling or numbness in the easily and feet, dizziness, confusion, delirium, seizures, and stroke.

In addition, some people take gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, such equally loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and intestinal pain or discomfort associated with COVID-nineteen.

What should I do if I recall I or my kid may accept a COVID-19 infection?

First, call your md or pediatrician for advice.

If you do not have a doctor and you are concerned that yous or your child may have COVID-19, contact your local board of health. They can direct y'all to the best place for testing and treatment in your surface area. Over-the-counter tests may also be available at your local chemist's shop or grocery store.

If you do test positive and either have no symptoms or can recover at habitation, you volition all the same need to

isolate at habitation for v days
if y'all have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, you tin discontinue isolation and leave your home
continue to wear a mask around others for 5 additional days.

If you have a fever, continue to isolate at home until you no longer have a fever.

If you have a high or very low body temperature, shortness of breath, confusion, or feeling you might laissez passer out, you need to seek immediate medical evaluation. Call the urgent care eye or emergency department ahead of time to let the staff know that you are coming, and so they tin can be prepared for your arrival.

How do I know if I have COVID-19, the influenza, or just a cold?

At present that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the dominant strain, telling the departure is more challenging than ever. Even if you have been vaccinated and boosted, yous can still get symptoms, just they are likely to be balmy to moderate in severity. For those not vaccinated, the hazard of astringent symptoms that can exist life-threatening is still substantial.

At the electric current time, people with "flulike" symptoms should assume they accept COVID. If possible, accommodate to become tested or do a habitation test. If the test is positive, you should isolate at home for 5 days. If you had a negative exam when symptoms started, it's nonetheless best to isolate at home for 2 to iii more than days, to monitor your symptoms and prevent spreading infection. (That'southward because there is a chance of imitation negatives with antigen tests, which means yous can still have COVID with a negative exam.) Consider testing again before going out. Once y'all are ready to leave dwelling house, keep to consistently wear a mask for at least v more days.

COVID-nineteen Testing

I recently spent time with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. I'thousand fully vaccinated and boosted. Practise I need to go tested?

According to the latest CDC guidelines, if you lot are vaccinated and boosted, or take gotten your initial vaccine series inside the terminal six months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the last two months (for Johnson & Johnson), yous should wear a mask around others for 10 days and take a COVID exam on mean solar day 5, if possible. If y'all develop symptoms, get tested sooner and isolate at dwelling.

If y'all are unvaccinated, had your last Pfizer or Moderna shot more than 6 months ago and accept not been additional, or had your Johnson & Johnson show more than two months ago and accept not been boosted, yous should stay habitation for five days and habiliment a mask around others for an boosted v days. If you can't quarantine, wearable a mask around others for 10 days. Get tested for COVID on twenty-four hour period 5, if possible. If y'all develop symptoms at whatever fourth dimension, become tested and isolate at home.

What is the deviation between a PCR test and an antigen test for COVID-19?

PCR tests and antigen tests are both diagnostic tests, which ways that they tin can be used to determine whether you currently take an active coronavirus infection. However, there are of import differences betwixt these 2 types of tests.

PCR tests discover the presence of the virus's genetic material using a technique called opposite transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR. For this test, a sample may be collected through a nasal or pharynx swab, or a saliva sample may be used. The sample is typically sent to a laboratory where coronavirus RNA (if present) is extracted from the sample and converted into DNA. The DNA is then amplified, significant that many copies of the viral Deoxyribonucleic acid are made, in guild to produce a measurable result. The accuracy of whatever diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was collected properly, when during the form of illness the testing was washed, and whether the sample was maintained in appropriate conditions while it was shipped to the laboratory. Generally speaking, PCR tests are highly accurate.

Antigen tests detect specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to as rapid diagnostic tests because it tin take less than an hr to become the test results. Positive antigen test results are highly specific, meaning that if you lot exam positive you are very likely to be infected. However, there is a college chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative result cannot definitively dominion out an active infection. If you accept a negative effect on an antigen test, your md may social club a PCR test or a second rapid antigen test to confirm the event.

It may exist helpful to recollect of a COVID antigen test as you would think of a rapid strep test or a rapid influenza test. A positive result for any of these tests is likely to be accurate, and allows diagnosis and treatment to brainstorm apace, while a negative upshot oft results in farther testing to confirm or overturn the initial issue.

How reliable are the tests for COVID-nineteen?

Two types of diagnostic tests are currently bachelor in the U.s.a.. PCR tests detect viral RNA. Antigen tests, also chosen rapid diagnostic tests, find specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. Antigen examination results may come dorsum in as piddling as 15 to 45 minutes; you may await several days for PCR test results.

The accurateness of any diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was nerveless properly. For PCR tests, which are typically analyzed in a laboratory, examination results may be affected by the conditions in which the exam was shipped to the laboratory.

Results may besides be affected by the timing of the test. For example, if y'all are tested on the day y'all were infected, your test result is about guaranteed to come dorsum negative, because there are not still plenty viral particles in your nose or saliva to observe. The risk of getting a false negative test upshot decreases if you are tested a few days after yous were infected, or a few days afterward you lot develop symptoms.

Generally speaking, if a test result comes back positive, information technology is almost certain that the person is infected.

A negative examination result is less definite. There is a college chance of false negatives with antigen tests, and early data suggests that antigen tests may exist fifty-fifty more likely to miss the Omicron variant. If you have a negative outcome on an antigen test, your doctor may gild a PCR test or recommend a 2nd rapid antigen test to ostend the consequence.

If you feel COVID-like symptoms and get a negative PCR examination issue, there is no reason to repeat the exam unless your symptoms get worse. If your symptoms practice worsen, call your doc or local or state healthcare section for guidance on further testing. Y'all should also self-isolate at home. Wear a mask when interacting with members of your household. And exercise physical distancing.

What is serologic (antibody) testing for COVID-19? What can information technology be used for?

A serologic test is a blood test that looks for antibodies to SARS-CoV-ii created past your allowed organization in response to infection or vaccination.

Your body takes one to three weeks afterward y'all have acquired the infection to develop antibodies to this virus. For this reason, serologic tests are non sensitive enough to accurately diagnose an agile COVID-19 infection, fifty-fifty in people with symptoms.

Antibodies and Spreading COVID-19

I've heard that the immune arrangement produces different types of antibodies when a person is infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. How exercise they differ? Why is this important?

When a person gets or is vaccinated against a viral or bacterial infection, a good for you immune system makes antibodies against one or more components of the virus or bacterium.

The COVID-19 coronavirus contains ribonucleic acid (RNA) surrounded by a protective layer, which has fasten proteins on the outer surface that can latch on to certain human cells. In one case within the cells, the viral RNA starts to replicate and as well turns on the production of proteins, both of which allow the virus to infect more cells and spread throughout the body, specially to the lungs.

While the allowed organization could potentially respond to unlike parts of the virus, it'southward the spike proteins that become the virtually attention. Immune cells recognize the spike proteins as a foreign substance and brainstorm producing antibodies in response.

In that location are 2 master categories of antibodies:

Bounden antibodies. These antibodies can bind to either the spike protein or a different protein known equally the nucleocapsid poly peptide. Binding antibodies tin can be detected with claret tests starting almost one week after the initial infection. If antibodies are constitute, it'south extremely likely that the person has been infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. The antibody level declines over time after an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

Binding antibodies assist fight the infection, just they might not offer protection against getting reinfected in the future. It depends on whether they are also neutralizing antibodies.

Neutralizing antibodies. The body makes neutralizing antibodies that attack the coronavirus's fasten protein, making it more than difficult for the virus to attach to and enter human cells. Neutralizing antibodies provide more than lasting protection than binding antibodies against reinfection.

Monoclonal antibodies are manmade versions of neutralizing antibodies. The FDA has authorized monoclonal antibody treatments for certain groups of COVID-nineteen patients.

Can a person who has been infected with coronavirus become infected once again?

The immune organization responds to COVID-19 infection by stimulating white blood cells called lymphocytes to form antibodies that fight the infection. These antibodies and lymphocytes retain a temporary protective effect against reinfection. But it is but temporary. In that location have been many confirmed cases of reinfection with COVID-19. In other words, a person got sick with COVID-19, recovered, and then became infected again.

This has been specially true as the coronavirus has mutated into COVID-nineteen variants. There was a rise in reinfections with the Delta variant, and an explosive increase in the reinfection charge per unit due to the Omicron variant. Omicron has about 50 mutations, including more 30 mutations on the spike protein, the region of the virus that our allowed systems recognize after previous infection. Because of this, Omicron is more capable than previous variants of evading our immune defenses and causing reinfection.

Nosotros have learned that vaccination plus a booster dose strengthens the natural immune response, fifty-fifty in those who take been previously infected, and farther reduces the gamble of reinfection. Although breakthrough infections after vaccination are too more mutual with Omicron than previous variants, vaccination continues to protect well against astringent illness.

The bottom line? Get vaccinated and additional whether or not y'all've already had COVID-19.

Contagiousness of COVID-19

How presently after I'm infected with the new coronavirus will I get-go to be contagious?

The fourth dimension from exposure to symptom onset (known equally the incubation period) is thought to be ii to 14 days. Symptoms typically appeared within v days for early on variants, and within four days for the Delta variant. The incubation period appears to exist even shorter – about three days – for the Omicron variant.

We know that people tend to be near infectious early in the course of their infection. With Omicron, most transmission occurs during the one to 2 days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days afterwards.

Wearing masks, particularly indoors, can help reduce the run a risk that someone who is infected but not notwithstanding experiencing symptoms may unknowingly infect others.

Can people without symptoms spread the virus to others?

"Without symptoms" tin refer to two groups of people: those who eventually exercise have symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never proceed to take symptoms (asymptomatic). During this pandemic, we have seen that people without symptoms tin spread the coronavirus infection to others.

A person with COVID-19 may be contagious 48 hours before starting to feel symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may be more probable to spread the illness, considering they are unlikely to be isolating and may not adopt behaviors designed to forbid spread.

But what about people who never get on to develop symptoms? A study published inJAMA Network Open found that almost one out of every four infections may exist transmitted by individuals with asymptomatic infections. The proportion of asymptomatic transmission appears to be fifty-fifty higher with the Omicron variant.

Getting vaccinated and additional in one case you are eligible is important for protecting not just yourself only others also; bear witness suggests that you're less probable to infect others, or may be contagious for a shorter period of time, once you've been vaccinated.

For how long after I am infected will I continue to exist contagious? How long do I demand to isolate?

People are thought to exist most contagious early in the form of their illness. With Omicron, most transmission appears to occur during the i to 2 days before onset of symptoms, and in the 2 to 3 days afterwards. People with no symptoms can too spread the coronavirus to others.

By the 10th twenty-four hour period after COVID symptoms brainstorm, nearly people will no longer be contagious, equally long as their symptoms have continued to improve and their fever has resolved. People who test positive for the virus simply never develop symptoms over the following 10 days after testing are also probably no longer contagious.

Co-ordinate to the CDC's isolation guidelines, everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should

isolate at habitation for v days
if you accept no symptoms or your symptoms are improving afterward v days, you can discontinue isolation and leave your home
go along to wear a mask around others for 5 additional days.

If yous have a fever, continue to isolate at home until you no longer have a fever.

Y'all can utilize the CDC's Quarantine and Isolation reckoner to aid determine when and how long you should stay home, go tested, and wear a mask around others if you accept COVID-19 or were recently in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

I'chiliad vaccinated merely got a breakthrough COVID infection. Can I still spread the infection to others?

Yeah, you lot can. That's why the CDC recommends that everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should isolate from others for at least five days, regardless of their vaccination status.

How can I protect myself while caring for someone that may have COVID-19?

You should take many of the same precautions as you would if you were caring for someone with the influenza:

Stay in another room or be separated from the person every bit much equally possible. Apply a dissever sleeping room and bathroom, if available.
Make sure that shared spaces in the dwelling house have good air flow. If possible, open a window.
Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at to the lowest degree xx seconds or apply an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains lx to 95% booze, roofing all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry out. Apply soap and water if your hands are visibly dirty.
Avert touching your eyes, olfactory organ, and mouth with unwashed hands.
Y'all and the person should wear a face up mask if y'all are in the aforementioned room.
Wearable a disposable confront mask and gloves when you touch or take contact with the person's blood, stool, or body fluids, such as saliva, sputum, nasal fungus, vomit, urine.
- Throw out disposable face masks and gloves afterwards using them. Do not reuse.
- Kickoff remove and throw away gloves. So, immediately clean your hands with soap and water or alcohol-based paw sanitizer. Next, remove and throw away the confront mask, and immediately clean your hands over again with lather and h2o or alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Do not share household items such equally dishes, drinking glasses, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with the person who is sick. After the person uses these items, wash them thoroughly.
Clean all "loftier-touch" surfaces, such every bit counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bath fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every day. Besides, clean whatsoever surfaces that may take claret, stool, or body fluids on them. Employ a household cleaning spray or wipe.
- Wash laundry thoroughly.
- Immediately remove and wash apparel or bedding that accept claret, stool, or torso fluids on them.
Wear disposable gloves while treatment soiled items and keep soiled items away from your body. Clean your easily immediately afterwards removing your gloves.
Place all used disposable gloves, face masks, and other contaminated items in a lined container before disposing of them with other household waste material. Clean your hands (with lather and water or an booze-based hand sanitizer) immediately after treatment these items.

Can people infect pets with the COVID-19 virus?

The virus that causes COVID-19 does announced to spread from people to pets, according to the FDA, though this is uncommon. Enquiry has found that cats and ferrets are more likely to become infected than dogs.

If you get ill with COVID-xix, it'south all-time to restrict contact with your pets, just similar you would around other people. This ways you should forgo petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing food or bedding with your pet until you are feeling better. When possible, have another member of your household care for your pets while you are ill. If you must intendance for your pet while you are sick, wash your easily before and after you interact with your pets and wear a face mask.

At nowadays, it is considered unlikely that pets tin spread the COVID-xix virus to humans. However, pets can spread other infections that cause illness, includingE. coli and Salmonella, then wash your easily thoroughly with lather and water after interacting with your beast companions.

Long Term Furnishings of COVID-19

I had COVID-19 a few months agone. Am I at increased risk for wellness bug in the hereafter?

It does announced that people who recover from COVID-19 take an increased take a chance of developing other medical conditions, at to the lowest degree in the short term.

One report, published inThe BMJ, collected laboratory test and hospital admissions information from a health plan in the United states. The researchers compared data from more than 190,000 adults, ages 18 to 65 years, who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2020, to information from a control group that was collected in 2019, before the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for six months afterward they tested positive for SARS-CoV-ii and recorded whatever new wellness complications.

They institute that fourteen% of people who had had COVID-19 developed a new medical issue during the following six months; this was nearly five% higher than the pre-pandemic control group, a pregnant difference. New medical issues affected a range of body systems and included respiratory failure, abnormal middle rhythms, diabetes, neurological problems, and liver and kidney problems. Increased risk was seen in younger, previously salubrious people, but was college in older people and those with pre-existing medical problems.

Another study, published inNature, compared the health records of more than 73,000 users of the Veteran's Wellness Administration (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 but were never hospitalized, to those of nearly five million other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-19 and were never hospitalized. For half dozen months following the outset thirty days after infection, people who had had COVID-19 were significantly more probable to die or to experience a medical or mental wellness problem that they had never had before.

These studies provide however another reason to get vaccinated and boosted if you lot are eligible.

Who are long-haulers? And what is post-viral syndrome?

Long haulers are people who have not fully recovered from COVID-19 weeks or even months after get-go experiencing symptoms. Some long haulers feel continuous symptoms for weeks or months, while others experience better for weeks, then relapse with one-time or new symptoms. The constellation of symptoms long haulers experience, sometimes chosen post-COVID-19 syndrome or post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), is not unique to this infection. Other infections, such as Lyme disease, can cause similar long-lasting symptoms.

Emerging research may assistance predict who volition become a long hauler. One written report constitute that COVID-19 patients who experienced more than five symptoms during their first week of illness were significantly more likely to become long haulers. Sure symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty breathing, a hoarse voice, and muscle or trunk aches — experienced lonely or in combination during the first week of illness besides increased the chances of becoming a long hauler, as did increasing historic period and higher torso mass index (BMI).

Though these factors may increase the likelihood of long-term symptoms, anyone tin can go a long hauler. Many long haulers initially accept mild to moderate symptoms — or no symptoms at all — and practice non require hospitalization. Previously healthy young adults, not simply older adults with circumstantial medical conditions, are also experiencing post-COVID-xix syndrome.

Symptoms of post-COVID-nineteen syndrome, like symptoms of COVID-19 itself, can vary widely. Some of the more common lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms afterward physical or mental activity, brain fog, shortness of breath, chills, body ache, headache, joint hurting, chest hurting, cough, and lingering loss of taste or aroma. Many long haulers report cerebral dysfunction or memory loss that affects their day-to-day power to do things similar make decisions, have conversations, follow instructions, and drive. The common thread is that long haulers oasis't returned to their pre-COVID wellness, and ongoing symptoms are negatively affecting their quality of life. A systematic review published in JAMA Network Open up reported that more than one-half of people infected with COVID-19 continued to experience at least one symptom six months after their diagnosis.

In that location's already some speculation, merely no definite answers, about what is causing these ongoing symptoms. Some researchers suspect that SARS-CoV-two infection triggers long-lasting changes in the immune system. Others suggest that it triggers autonomic nervous arrangement dysregulation, which can impact heart rate, blood pressure, and sweating, amongst other things.

Blog posts:

Brain fog: Memory and attending after COVID-nineteen
Could COVID-19 infection be responsible for your depressed mood or feet?
What is COVID-xix brain fog — and how can you clear it?
The tragedy of the post-COVID "long haulers"
The hidden long-term cognitive furnishings of COVID
Which test is all-time for COVID-19?
Allergies? Mutual cold? Flu? Or COVID-xix?

Podcast:

You think you've got COVID-19. Here's what you lot need to do (recorded 4/ten/20)

Nosotros asked Dr. Mallika Marshall, medical reporter for CBS-affiliate WBZ TV in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, how nosotros should react when we start to experience a dry cough or maybe spike a fever. Who practice you phone call? How do you protect your family unit? When does information technology make sense to move toward an emergency department, and how should we gear up? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Health Publishing'southward online course serial, and an urgent care physician at Mass General Hospital.

Visit our Coronavirus Resource Heart for more data on coronavirus and COVID-xix.

Share this page:

Share this folio to Facebook
Share this page to Twitter
Share this page to Google Plus
Electronic mail this folio

As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of concluding review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical communication from your doc or other qualified clinician.

overstreettherreck.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/if-youve-been-exposed-to-the-coronavirus