‘Most will get it’: Top SA virologist’s warning on Covid-19
Most people will catch Covid-19 but the majority will not get seriously ill, says one of SA’s top virologists.
Efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus could already be helping to reduce other illnesses, such as influenza, said Wolfgang Preiser, head of medical virology at Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg National Health Laboratory Service.
“Ultimately most people will get [Covid-19], hopefully over many months to a few years and not all at once, and most will have mild disease and recover without problems,” he said.
“But there will be a proportion who will be very ill and some will die, and not all of those will be people in the risk groups. Once a friend is seriously ill in hospital, everyone will change their minds.”
Preiser told TimesLIVE he was cautiously optimistic the measures in place to combat Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, could also help combat other harmful diseases affecting the general population.
“There is some evidence that there is less influenza than expected already, and perhaps there will be a reduction in diarrhoea, too. Whether that will also translate into less TB remains to be seen, as it is normally not an acute onset illness,” he said.
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