Viral load

[twinkletoesimnot]

I keep reading about viral load. Can someone explain in plain English what that means? Is it that the more you come into contact with the virus, the worse you will potentially get it?

Yes.

basically yes

And I’m taking it mean reduce and minimise the possibility of picking it up from more than one source. So sitting apart at home, keeping the house aired, regular washing and wiping of everything, avoiding public transport, exercising in the garden not in the park, making do, so no unnecessary food shopping, not sitting in a car with anyone else. I’m pretty sure I had it early but I’m not convinced that afford immunity so I’m behaving as if contracting it would be dire.

www.newscientist.com/article/2238819-does-a-high-viral-load-or-infectious-dose-make-covid-19-worse/ people will be misappropriating the term, the link explains it well

Thanks all. I'm a teacher and on the rota for key worker's children in school. This is worrying me, although as far as I know, we are all in good health.

Is vital load not the amount of virus you shed? Infectious dose is maybe what you're talking about

Lots of people have an immune system perfectly able to cope with an infection of covid 19. When these individuals are repeatedly exposed to the virus, then their immune system has to work harder for the consequent addition of viruses to the body. It can still succeed in suppressing the virus. But in some cases it cannot deal with the overload of viruses. And in some cases their immune system can overwork itself so much that that, in itself, can cause problems and possibly death because of a so called cytokine storm.
However, some immune systems can create a cytokine storm for a low level exposure to the virus but that’s a different issue.
That’s putting it in simple terms and how I understand it in my head.
So even healthy, younger individuals with no underlying conditions can die from this infection if they are exposed to high doses of the virus.

It sounds a bit rude to me. Load. Tehe

I’ve had a ‘mild’ but prolonged case - so not hospitalised, not tested but ongoing fever, scary shortness of breath even at rest, major fatigue, sore throat, stomach upset etc that has led GPs to conclude that’s what this is. My initial dose was seemingly through my 5 year old, who was quite unwell with it and coughed repeatedly into my face while I was looking after her (as kids do). It was pretty horrid and debilitating for 2 weeks and another 2 weeks of on off symptoms and ongoing breathing issues and I’m otherwise fit and healthy. I suspect this severity was likely at least partly down to the high initial dose compared to transmission via a public surface for example. That said, some people’s immune response will struggle even at the low dose and there’s no way of knowing.