Superhero virus hunter
A curious paper published this spring by Russian medical researcher Alexey Polonikov at the height of the coronavirus pandemic looked at a sampling of four COVID-19-positive patients at Kursk State Medical University: two with moderate to severe symptoms that persisted, and two with mild symptoms that disappeared without treatment within days.
All four patients were women, nonsmokers with no previously diagnosed underlying chronic conditions. The women were part of a healthy control group in a separate study of oxidation status in type 2 diabetes at the university’s Research Institute for Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology.
One 33-year-old woman developed a fever of 38°C (100°F) and mild muscle aches eight days after she had contact with someone infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Her symptoms disappeared without treatment six days after they began.
The second patient, a 47-year-old woman, developed a low-grade fever (37.3°C/99°F) and mild fatigue 10 days after she was exposed to the novel coronavirus via an infected person. Her symptoms resolved without treatment four days later.
A third woman in the study was 44 years old and developed severe COVID-19 symptoms four days after coming into contact with an infected person. Her fever ranged from 37.1°C to 38.5°C (99–101°F), her voice became hoarse, and she developed a dry cough along with significant muscle aches and fatigue. Pneumonia was confirmed by radiography.
Twenty-four days after her symptoms began, when the study was published in May, they had not yet resolved.
The fourth woman in the study was 56 and developed COVID-19 symptoms a week after exposure to an infected person. Her fever peaked at
