"Dose makes poison" , is a proverb of Paracelsus, a Swiss philosopher-doctor from the Early Renaissance.
Basically, this means that any substance can become toxic if given in a fairly high concentration. Even too much water can "throw" your electrolytes and be potentially fatal.
Seeing the coronavirus through this lens, that is, that the "dose" of virus you get can make the difference between being asymptomatic, getting sick easily or being in a critical condition, can be helpful when thinking about protection against Covid- 19.
SARS-CoV-2 is likely to behave like other viruses
"The concept of the need for a certain dose of a pathogen to cause an infection has been shown to be the case for many viruses," explains Erin Bromage, a professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.
If you give a low dose to an animal, they may be able to avoid it without developing any disease. But if doses continue to increase, the results can be more severe.
"So the infectious dose is important," Bromage said, describing the relationship as "dose-dependent."
One way to understand it is to conceive: You do not need millions of sperm to fertilize an egg, you only need one, but men make millions of sperm to improve the chances of any of them reaching the egg, overcoming its defenses and fertilizing it. .
So this dose dependence does not mean that it takes a certain number of virus particles to infect a cell, but increasing the dose simply increases the chances that one of those viral particles can get into the cell and infect it, thus caused a chain reaction.
Taking a viral dose at the same time or dispersing over time
There is another dimension to the viral dose and it has to do with time. It does not matter just the dose of virus you get at a certain point in time. It can also be the amount of viral doses you take over a period of time.
In mid-October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in America changed the definition of the term "close contact," to include multiple, brief exposures, such as a 15-minute stay with an infected person.
Nuk ka të bëjë vetëm me virusin, por dhe me individin
Vetë virusi nuk është organizmi i vetëm që luan rol. I rëndësishëm është dhe vetë individi.
Mundësia e infektimit varet nga disa faktorë si fiziologjikë, sjelljet personale apo zakonet shëndetësore të një individi si pirja e duhanit, dieta, aktiviteti fizik dhe gjumi. Një person i moshuar dhe i sëmurë padyshim përbën skenarin më të keq. Një person i brishtë nga ana mjekësore, mund të sëmuret dhe nga një dozë e ulët e virusit.
Because people can not control whether and certainly not how much viral dose they take, doctors and health experts continue to repeat what needs to be done to stay safe: to keep physical distance from anyone who is not a family member, to we choose outdoor environments and large spaces, take care of hygiene, wash our hands well and most importantly, wear masks!
Source: CNN
