When a person with the virus coughs, sneezes, or talks, respiratory droplets are discharged. These droplets can be inhaled or land in someone else’s mouth or nose. Kissing or other sexual practices that come into touch with a person’s spit could expose you to the virus.
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Why are COVID-19 cases on the rise once more?
Despite the fact that there are more cases overall, some will still result in hospitalizations and deaths, albeit at lower rates than previously.
Cases growing and declining are influenced by a variety of factors, including climate, behavior, and mitigation efforts (or lack thereof). Scientists are attempting to determine what the recent spike of cases means for the virus’s long-term protection and ongoing evolution.
People can re-infect themselves if their immunity wanes or if the virus mutates in such a way that it gets past the body’s defense systems. Both variables could be at play, according to experts studying current disease patterns: While protection against severe sickness appears to be lasting, the ability to stop an infection appears to fade in a few of months. While the BA.1 sublineage was responsible for the first Omicron wave, the BA.2 sublineage was not responsible for the second.
Is it possible to contract COVID-19 via kissing?
Kissing. There’s a lot more possibility for quarantining with your lover these days, but with COVID levels rising, you might be wondering: Can I get COVID-19 from kissing (or even more intimate activity)?
Because the virus that causes COVID-19 spreads by saliva, exchanging spit with an infected individual can transmit the virus to you.
However, if you’re kissing someone you live with who isn’t sick, the risk is generally low, especially if you’re confident that neither of you has been exposed to the virus.
Although the coronavirus is not considered a sexually transmitted disease, close, sustained sexual contact allows the virus to spread from one person to another. The virus can be found in a person’s saliva as well as in the invisible droplets of air they exhale. When kissing or having intercourse, you run the chance of contracting the virus by coming into direct touch with the other person’s saliva or inhaling the virus that they’re exhaling with each breath.
If you and your live-in partner practice good COVID-19 hygiene, such as wearing face masks in public, keeping a social distance of at least six feet from other people, and washing your hands frequently, it’s safe to assume that neither of you is infected, as long as neither of you is exhibiting symptoms.
If you or your partner, on the other hand, shows signs of disease, such as fever, chills, or coughing, that person should self-isolate, and you should not kiss or have intercourse with that person. Whether your companion has COVID-19, influenza, or any other contagious condition, this is true. Nobody wants to infect their sweetheart with a disease!
What are the sexual side effects of COVID-19, which are uncommon but possible?
If the danger of death or severe disability isn’t enough to persuade someone to get vaccinated against COVID-19, males can add erectile dysfunction to the list of possible coronavirus side effects.
According to a new University of Florida Health study, males who are infected with COVID-19 are more than three times as likely to be diagnosed with erectile dysfunction (ED) than those who are not. The study adds to the growing body of data that COVID-19 has an effect on sexual function, according to the researchers.
One area that has piqued his interest is the documented link between periodontal disease and erectile dysfunction, which Katz claims prompted him to look into a possible link between ED and COVID-19 once the epidemic arrived.
The study revealed 146 people diagnosed with ED after an episode of COVID-19, or 4.7 percent of all men diagnosed with COVID-19, after sifting through data from UF Health patients.
When a number of other factors are taken into account, the relationship remains strong. For example, males with respiratory disease were 1.6 times more likely to have ED, 1.8 times more likely to be obese, 1.9 times more likely to have circulatory or cardiovascular disease, 2.3 times more likely to have diabetes, and 3.5 times more likely to be smokers.
“The coronavirus interacts to a receptor that is common on the penis and testes,” Katz added.
The virus has the ability to connect to such locations. COVID has also been demonstrated to diminish the amount of testosterone generated in studies. The reduction of testosterone has been demonstrated to increase the probability of a more severe COVID-19 reaction.
And, he added, the decrease of testosterone raises the risk of ED. Other mechanisms could potentially be at work.
Parts of the coronavirus were detected in the penis of numerous persons who had recovered from COVID-19 but had become impotent, according to researchers at the University of Miami earlier this year. COVID-19 is known to harm blood vessels, according to scientists, and the virus appears to have damaged the vessels in these individuals’ penises, obstructing blood flow and affecting sexual function.
There are numerous key drawbacks in Katz’s research. While researchers were able to search a database of UF Health patients whose identities were kept hidden, codes only disclosed diagnoses, not complete medical histories. One of the drawbacks is the inability to determine the severity of each patient’s COVID-19 and other conditions that may have contributed to the ED.
Furthermore, researchers could only make one condition adjustment at a time. So, while they could control for diabetes, they couldn’t adjust for both diabetes and obesity.
More research is needed, according to the researchers. Scientists, on the other hand, are increasingly considering the notion that ED is just one of many long-term COVID symptoms.
In fact, in September, a review published in Sexual Medicine Reviews looked at the evidence for a link between sexual dysfunction and COVID-19.
“According to a publication co-authored by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, San Diego, the evidence that COVID-19 infection causes or influences ED is substantial.
An relationship between ED and COVID-19, according to Kevin J. Campbell, M.D., an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine’s department of urology focusing in men’s health, including ED, would not be surprising, and he believes the study raises relevant questions.
Campbell, who was not involved in the research and is not a co-author, pointed out that viral diseases, such as influenza, have been associated to lower testosterone levels and sexual dysfunction.
“During viral infection, there is chronic inflammation throughout the body, and returning to balance and regular body rhythms might take time, he said.
Katz feels the apparent link between ED and COVID-19 is much larger than the figures in his study show, owing to the stigma associated with ED, which renders men less likely to report it to doctors.
A COVID-19 immunization, according to Katz, is something that everyone should obtain. He feels his research provides another another reason.
“Sex is such a crucial aspect of life,” he explained, “that maybe will make people think, “OK, maybe I should be vaccinated.”
The study was done with the help of biostatistics specialists from the University of Florida’s College of Public Health and Health Professions.
Is it possible for the COVID-19 virus to survive for a long time on clothing?
Not all settings are risk-free: if you lean against high-touch surfaces that have been exposed to COVID-19, your clothing may be more likely to house the virus. If you work in a health-care setting where people have COVID-19, your chances of being exposed to virus particles on your clothing may increase.
According to research, COVID-19 does not survive as long on garments as it does on hard surfaces, and heat may limit the virus’s life. COVID-19 could be detected on fabric for up to two days at room temperature, compared to seven days for plastic and metal, according to a study published in When exposed to intense heat, however, the virus became inactive in five minutes.
“The easiest way to get rid of the virus if you’re concerned that your clothes has been exposed to COVID-19 is to wash any exposed items on warm cycles,” explains John Sensakovic, M.D., division director of infectious disease at JFK Medical Center.
What is Paxlovid rebound, and how does it work?
In a statement released on May 24, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claimed that some persons treated with Paxlovid had experienced side effects “COVID-19 recovered within two to eight days of their initial recovery.
Following a negative COVID test, some persons suffer a recurrence of symptoms and/or a new positive COVID test.
This has happened to those who have never been vaccinated as well as those who have been vaccinated and boosted.
The patient’s symptoms healed up and then reappeared roughly a week following treatment, according to this report. This was accompanied by an increase in his viral load, or the amount of virus in his body.
Others have shared their rebounding symptoms on social media or reported them to the FDA.
After concluding the medication, 1 to 2% of persons treated with the antiviral had a positive COVID-19 testor a rise in the amount of virus identified, according to Pfizer’s clinical trial.
The FDA noted that this type of rebound occurred in those who received the inactive placebo, so it’s unclear whether it’s related to the medicine.
Furthermore, the agency stated that participants in the experiment who experienced recurrence of symptoms did not have a higher risk of hospitalization or death. There were also no signs that the coronavirus had developed treatment resistance.
It’s possible “The CDC stated that this is part of the normal history of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, regardless of whether someone was treated with Paxlovid, vaccinated, or boosted.
Should you get the COVID-19 vaccine if you get COVID-19 again?
However, because it is possible to re-infect and because COVID-19 can cause serious medical consequences, the CDC recommends that those who have already been infected with COVID-19 get vaccinated against it. Furthermore, getting vaccinated against COVID-19 may provide better protection than getting sick with COVID-19.
What is one of the ways COVID-19 spreads from one person to the next?
COVID-19 is thought to be passed mostly from person to person, according to experts. This can happen in a number of ways:
- Aerosols or droplets. This is the most prevalent way of transmitting information. Droplets or tiny particles called aerosols transport the virus into the air from an infected person’s nose or mouth when they cough, sneeze, or talk. It can be breathed into the lungs by anyone within 6 feet of that person.
- Transmission via the air. According to studies, the virus can survive in the air for up to three hours. If someone with it breaths out and you breathe that air in, it can go into your lungs. Experts disagree on how frequently the virus spreads via airborne transmission and how much it adds to the pandemic.
- Transmission at the surface. Touching surfaces that have been coughed or sneezed on by someone who has the virus is a less common way. You could come into contact with a contaminated countertop or doorknob and then touch your nose, mouth, or eyes. For 2 to 3 days, the virus can survive on surfaces such as plastic and stainless steel. To stop it, clean and disinfect any counters, knobs, and other surfaces that you and your family come into contact with on a daily basis.
- Fecal-oral. Virus particles have also been identified in the excrement of sick persons, according to studies. However, researchers aren’t clear if the sickness can spread through touch with infected people’s feces. If that individual goes to the bathroom without washing their hands, they risk infecting the items and persons they come into contact with.
People who develop symptoms are the most common carriers of the virus. It is, nevertheless, possible to pass it on without displaying any symptoms. Some persons who are unaware that they are afflicted can pass it on to others. Asymptomatic spread is the term for this. You can also transfer it before you show any symptoms of infection, which is known as presymptomatic transmission.