Does new coronavirus pneumonia have sequelae? Zhong Nanshan: Not big

According to the latest WHO data, the cumulative number of newly coronavirus diagnosed cases of new global pneumonia has exceeded 3.4 million. The situation with epidemic prevention and control is still very grim. In China, in addition to the strict prevention of imported cases, the focus has gradually shifted to virus-related scientific and technical topics. The topics are including infectivity, variability, vaccines, complications, and so on.

Touching upon the problem of complications, academician Zhong Nanshan said that according to his observations, patients with new ischemic pneumonia recover well after discharge. As long as there are no underlying diseases, they recover quickly. Even some underlying diseases are better than SARS.

Zhong Nanshan emphasized that the lungs of patients with new coronavirus pneumonia recovered well. And SARS 17 years ago, some patients still had symptoms of pulmonary fibrosis after six months to one year of recovery, and pulmonary fibrosis in patients with new coronavirus pneumonia was not too severe. It looks reversible.

Zhong Nanshan found that lung function tests in more than 100 patients, as a rule, do not return to normal levels. But, apparently, they are not too destructive and gradually recover. So the consequences are small.

In addition, Zhong Nanshan admitted that the infectivity of the new coronavirus was unexpected: the general influenza infectivity index was 1, SARS was about 2, a respiratory syndrome in the Middle East was 1.5, and new coronary pneumonia reached 3.

For a popular saying by many people that “high temperature kills a new coronavirus.” Zhong Nanshan emphasized that overall survival and activity of the virus under high-temperature conditions are relatively low. When summer comes, the activity of the virus will decrease. And the high temperature will become harmful to the activity of the virus. However, ultraviolet rays in the natural world are not strong enough to be sanitized. And it is impossible to rely solely on heat to block the spread of the virus.

The new crown epidemic broke out in May

Recently, several online accounts posted articles such as “Zhong Nanshan: The May Flash Will Break Out completely”, which has attracted a lot of attention from Internet users. So Academician Zhong Nanshan really said that?

After verification, Academician Zhong Nanshan did not predict that the “May outbreak will completely happen” on any public platform.

In contrast, Academician Zhong Nanshan said in a media interview on April 1 that the new epidemic in China should still be vigilant, but it is not expected that there will be a second outbreak.

He explained: “Because we have a strong monitoring system. “As soon as we detect (virus-infected) isolation, we also isolate and observe its close contacts and disconnect the transmission chain early, it will not cause an outbreak.”

In an interview with People’s Daily on April 12, Academician Zhong Nanshan said: “There is definitely a risk of infection among the population, but the second wave of outbreaks in China is very unlikely.”