"It’ll take us a long time to get to the coronavirus treatment. As for the vaccine – we are even further away." This was said to BNR by the pulmonologist Prof. Kosta Kostov – a consultant at St. Anna Hospital in Sofia and chairman of the Medical Expert Council under the Prime Minister, which, by the way, dissolved two weeks after its establishing, having fulfilled its obligation to present a lengthy paper with recommendations.
According to Prof. Kostov, a positive PCR test does not mean there is an active virus and the data confirming this conclusion are growing. "A positive test is registered, we register particles of the virus, but this is not a virus that can infect," the professor was adamant and quoted data from a specialized test in the United States.
According to this test: "The probability that on the 10th day after the onset of symptoms there is a viable virus that can replicate, multiply, be cultivated, i.e., which can infect and affect, is small ", the doctor explained.
Prof. Kostov pointed out that all patients who are proven carriers of Covid-19 should stay at home not less than 7 days after the onset of symptoms and not less than 3 days after fading and complete disappearance of fever and cough. He specified that a total of 14 days is the period for quarantine at home of an infected person.
Prof. Kosta Kostov commented on the idea of some South Korean doctors who say we should move to a new concept – looking at the drugs that exist now, and reorganizing their use. "These colleagues have identified about 24 medicinal products, among which there are some intriguing ones that we can use as well," he said.
According to the pulmonologist, the easing of the measures is timely, because it is necessary to preserve all aspects of our health, which includes mental and "social well-being", not just the absence of illness and weakness. "We have to be very careful because of this insidious virus, and to deal well with the freedom, afforded to us," he stressed. According to him, the number of newly infected does not show the complete picture of the situation in the country, because it is concentrated in risk groups that have been studied and tested.
Prof. Kostov pointed out that 10 revisions of the recommendations document related to the Covid-19 pandemic and created by the Medical Expert Council have been completed.
"Fellow doctors use them and the interest is huge," said Prof. Kostov, adding that the text is constantly updated – every week in some chapters new additions appear. In his words, the council has the support of the entire guild and some of the medics present their own experience in texts that are sent to the Council .
