Is it possible for a patient to recovered patients to get the coronavirus again? Deputies asked Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan about this during the National Assembly Standing Committee on Healthcare and Social Affairs session.
The minister responded, “Unfortunately, there have been such cases, including in Armenia. But there is a huge academic debate about whether these patients were fully treated and they caught the virus again or if the virus was inactivated, then it became active again. Or, most likely, this is due to the presence of inactive virus particles in the tissues when the virus does not multiple, but its RNA is present in the cells. In any case, we have three such cases now. They are not experiencing any symptoms, but they were confirmed to have the virus again sometime after being released. We isolated them so we can understand what needs to be done for such cases.” There is a theory that the virus particles remain in the mouth cavity for 2-3 months, but there is no confirmed hypothesis yet.
The deputies spoke about citizens’ opinions. Some people believe that all of this is a lie and that there is no virus, and there are others who believe that this all began much sooner in December-January, but everyone thought it was the flu. Arsen Torosyan said, “Those opinions almost do not differ from conspiracy theories and denials, such as the denial of HIV. There are still people who believe that HIV does not exist. There are now people who do not believe that the coronavirus exists. The solution to this problem lies only in education because there are people who are truly infected and who truly recovered. There are people who have publicly stated that they have the virus. There are hospitals treating such patients and the tests exist. It is difficult to deny absurdity.”
As far as mistaking the coronavirus for the flu, the minister said that there are many viruses. Five viruses are almost indistinguishable from one another, but Armenia did not have an outbreak at the time.
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Hripsime Jebejyan
