COVID-19 is still very present in people's daily lives. Unfortunately, this pandemic has claimed many victims around the world and experts continue to investigate this highly contagious virus.
Since the arrival of COVID-19, many symptoms have been attributed to it. Fever, cough and loss of smell are part of the classic triad of symptoms of this disease. However, a new study has focused attention on the other symptoms of this coronavirus that may reveal an additional one-third of cases.
As reported by King's College London in their research, one third of those infected with COVID-19 did not experience any of the three usual symptoms during the first few days of infection.
An extended list
This study, conducted on 122,000 adults in the United Kingdom using the 'ZOE COVID Symptom Study' app, revealed that limiting detection to cough, fever and anosmia only revealed 69% of cases. If this list of symptoms is extended to seven, 96%would be detected.
The symptomatology on which this study has focused attention, in addition to the classic triad, has to do with fatigue, headache, diarrhea and sore throat.
These symptoms had already been identified as being associated with SARS-CoV-2. In fact, the Spanish Ministry of Health had already identified them in a long list but had listed them as infrequent. Now, the British study highlights them as important.
This research by King's College London has uncovered that some of these symptoms appear first. Headache and diarrhea would occur in the first three days of infection, while fever would occur up to the seventh. In fact, 31% of people infected with COVID-19 had no fever, cough or anosmia in the early stages of infection, when the virus is most transmissible.
The experts made a model to know what proportion of positives is discovered with each symptomatology during the first days of infection.
When limited to cough and breathing problems, 46% of positives are identified. If fever is added, the proportion of positives rises to 60%, while with anosmia the percentage rises to 69%. When fatigue and headache are added to this list, the positives identified increase to 92%.
According to the researchers, these two symptoms occur in many other diseases, but they have called for them to be taken into account in screening models, in combination with others.
Nothing is to be ruled out
In addition to this symptomatology, other research on the subject has shown that there are also rare symptoms such as chills, loss of appetite or muscle aches that would be related to this contagious virus.
"We've known all along that just focusing on the classic triad of cough, fever and anosmia misses a significant portion of positives," says Tim Spector, one of the research participants. "We identified anosmia as a symptom in May and that led the authorities to add it to the list," he adds. "Now it's clear that we need to expand the list," he adds. As time goes by, the virus, which has spread around the world in little more than a year, is becoming better known.
With hopes pinned on the vaccination campaign, society is confident that the virus will gradually lose virulence and the new normality will gradually be restored.
[This is a translation of the original article "Tres síntomas ocultos que pueden mostrar que tienes coronavirus" published in espanadiario.net]
