During an epidemic, the more information you accumulate about the virus, the more you realize that you don’t know anything. If this is the main conclusion of a study conducted on Zika, these results also apply to the phenomenon of the coronavirus.
- In the event of an epidemic, too much information can have anxiety-provoking effects
- This is especially true when we do not yet know everything about the effects and the possible evolution of the epidemic.
- This is demonstrated by a study carried out from the spread of the Zika virus which gives elements that can be applied to the coronavirus epidemic.
At a time when the coronavirus is affecting all continents, psychosis sets in and many Internet users spend their days investigating the epidemic, its evolution and the symptoms of the disease. While it is of course important to be properly informed, too much information on your own could have counterproductive effects, especially when the experts still know almost nothing about an affliction, as is the case here with the Covid-19. Indeed, according to a new study published at the end of February in the journal Risk Analysisdoing a lot of research on an infectious threat can be more frustrating than anything else.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers conducted an online survey of 494 people of childbearing age who lived in Florida in December 2016, the time when this state had the highest number of cases. Zika transmitted locally in the United States. The participants were asked about their knowledge or their way of looking for information on the disease. As pregnant women with Zika were more likely to have their child born with a specific birth defect, participants affected or planning a pregnancy felt more at risk of the disease. However, they were not the only ones to worry about this affliction, yet asymptomatic in the vast majority of cases.
“Even if the data suggests a person is at low risk, lack of information can make some people feel high risk”, explains Shelly Hovick, co-author of the study and assistant professor of communication at the State University of Ohio (United States). In addition, the researchers noticed that the participants were more likely to do research if those around them were also interested in the subject.
“Great media attention”
Another interesting observation: while people concerned about Zika often process the information they come across in depth, they do not necessarily have the reflex to do research on their own. Thus, to avoid this unpleasant feeling of vagueness, public health agencies should always inform the public in real time of the evolution of an epidemic.
If this study may relate to Zika, these results can apply to the new coronavirus, assure the researchers. “New risks like Zika or the coronavirus may cause some people to react differently than known risks like cancer or the flucomments Shelly Hovick. The Zika virus and the coronavirus have important points in common. In both cases, they are shrouded in uncertainty and have been the subject of much media attention. Our research focuses on how people seek out and process information when there is so much uncertainty”she continues.
In the case of Zika, the information available being limited, it was not necessarily comforting to try to find out more, conclude the researchers. “We found that the more information people thought they had, the more they realized they didn’t know enough”, says Austin Hubner, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in communications at Ohio State University. “With the Zika virus, even the experts themselves didn’t know much at the time. It’s the same as the coronavirus, and it scares people who think they’re in danger.”he concludes.
Mild symptoms in most cases
The Zika virus is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. The latter can also cause dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow fever. In details, Aedes aegypti can transmit in tropical or subtropical areas and Aedes albopictus (tiger mosquito) in more temperate regions. The mosquito contaminates itself by biting an already infected person and can thus transmit the virus by biting another individual.
In the body, the virus multiplies and persists for three to ten days. The disease is most often asymptomatic. When this is not the case, the manifestations are most often benign and flu-like (headaches, body aches, skin rashes, fatigue). More rarely, Zika can manifest as conjunctivitis, pain behind the eyes or swelling in the hands and/or feet. The patient should rest, hydrate as much as possible and take painkillers to relieve pain.
Several gray areas around the disease
However, in very rare cases, Zika can have serious consequences. Neurological complications such as Guillain-Barré syndrome (condition where the immune system attacks part of the nervous system) have been described in particular in Brazil, French Polynesia and Martinique. An unusual increase in cases of microcephaly (excessive smallness of the head) has also been noted in fetuses and newborns in Brazil since November 2015, where the Zika outbreak started.
Generally, humans are not contagious to each other, with a few exceptions. The contamination of the virus by sexual way is indeed possible, Zika being able to be found in the semen of a man. When a pregnant woman has sex with a partner who has lived in a high-risk area, she is therefore advised to use a condom. However, it is not yet known whether the virus can persist in the semen of recovered men and, if so, for how long. Another gray area: contamination by blood transfusion. If this mode of transmission is not yet certain, it is possible because the virus has been found in the blood. He could stay there five to seven days. When in doubt, health authorities recommend that people returning from an endemic region postpone their blood donation until at least a year later. So, like Covid-19, Zika still remains a mystery in many ways.
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