- A study from the University of Southern California was able to determine that COVID-19 symptoms often begin in a certain order.
- According to the study, while the flu usually starts with a cough, the first symptom of COVID-19 is fever.
- However, doctors working with patients with COVID-19 said that, in their experience, the symptoms are not as predictable.
The symptoms of COVID-19, including fever and cough, are similar to the symptoms of a number of other common illnesses, including seasonal flu.
With the flu season in full swing, how do you know if a fever is a symptom of the flu or COVID-19? A new study has shed light on how the symptoms of COVID-19 present, which may help people trying to find out if the cough is just a cough or something worse.
Research from the University of Southern California (USC) was able to determine that COVID-19 symptoms often begin in a certain order.
This finding may help people with COVID-19 to isolate and get treatment sooner, which could significantly improve patient outcomes.
“This order is especially important to know when we have overlapping cycles of diseases like the flu that coincide with COVID-19 infections,” said Peter Kuhn, PhD, one of the study’s authors and professor of medicine, biomedical and aerospace engineering. and mechanical engineering at USC. “Doctors can determine what steps need to be taken to care for the patient and can prevent their condition from getting worse.”
To predict the order of symptoms, the researchers analyzed the incidence rates of symptoms collected by the World Health Organization (WHO) for more than 55,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in China.
They also examined a set of data from nearly 1,100 cases collected between December 2019 and January 2020 by the China Medical Treatment Expert Group for COVID-19 and provided by China’s National Health Commission.
To compare the order of symptoms of COVID-19 with influenza, the researchers analyzed data from more than 2,000 cases of influenza in North America, Europe and the southern hemisphere reported to health authorities between 1994 and 1998.
“The order of symptoms is important,” said Joseph Larsen, lead author of the study and a USC Dornsife doctoral candidate. “Knowing that each disease progresses differently means doctors can identify earlier if someone is likely to have COVID-19 or another disease, which can help them make better treatment decisions.”
According to the study’s findings, this is the order of symptoms that people with COVID-19 may experience:
- fever
- cough and muscle pain
- nausea or vomiting
- diarrhea
“The study found that patients with seasonal flu more often developed a cough before the onset of fever,” Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, told Healthline. . “Actually, this can be hard to discern, as the flu often starts abruptly with a choice of symptoms, including back pain, chills, along with dry cough.”
Glatter said the findings are potentially useful “in evaluating multiple patients in a busy clinical setting.”
According to the study, while the flu usually starts with a cough, the first symptom of COVID-19 is fever.
“Our results support the notion that fever should be used to verify entry into the facilities as regions begin to open up after the outbreak of spring 2020,” wrote the study authors.
Glatter shared his experience treating patients with COVID-19 in New York City.
“Overall, while fever is usually the most described initial symptom of COVID-19 infection, the reality of what I see on the front line is more variable,” he said.
“In fact, some patients may present with only loss of taste or smell and otherwise feel fine,” Glatter said. “I have also seen patients presenting with“ COVID toes ”or children; a livedo type [reddish-blue discoloration] of skin reaction in response to acute inflammation, in the absence of fever, cough or other respiratory symptoms. ”
Glatter said other patients have also “presented with discomfort, headaches and dizziness,” which somehow resembles stroke symptoms, but without fever, cough, or evidence of upper airway symptoms.
“I’ve also seen patients who presented with only chest pain, no respiratory symptoms,” he said. “The onset of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea after the onset of respiratory symptoms such as fever and cough may also suggest that a person may have COVID-19.”
According to Glatter, the bottom line is that healthcare professionals need to be vigilant and keep an open mind when evaluating patients who may have symptoms associated with the disease. “They don’t always present‘ according to the book ’, so you have to launch a wide network when you think about who may or may not have COVID-19,” he said.
“It is vital to understand the progression of symptoms in people infected with COVID-19, so that the spread of the disease is stopped, in fact, to isolate and initiate effective contact monitoring,” Glatter said. “This is quite relevant for a virus that is two to three times more transmissible than the flu, which causes cluster outbreaks.”
He also said that understanding the first symptoms not only helps patients look for evidence more quickly, but also to begin to distance themselves physically or socially after the first symptoms begin.
“It also underscores the importance of wearing masks and hand hygiene in knowing the symptoms,” Glatter said.
He also finds that sudden loss of odor and taste and inflammatory skin reactions, such as minor ones, can be “important clinical clues that can distinguish COVID-19 from seasonal flu.”
According to the
These are three very controlled variants:
- Variant B.1.1.7. It was first identified in the UK in the fall. It is found to spread more quickly (and more easily) than other variants. It may be associated with a higher risk of death compared to other variants, but more research is needed to confirm this. It was detected in the United States in December.
- Variant B.1.351. It was first identified in October in South Africa and later detected in the United States in December.
- Variant P.1. It was first identified in travelers from Brazil who were tested at a Japanese airport in early January.
Recent research says that variant B.1.1.7 does not affect the respiratory tract or cause lung disease more severely than SARS-CoV-2. The authors of the study stressed that “complete and clear data on this topic will be ready in the near future.”
Another study finds that while newer variants of coronavirus may be more infectious, there is still no evidence that they cause more serious disease.
“Scientists have now studied this and found that these variants tend to spread more quickly, that they are more transmissible or more infectious,” said Vismita Gupta-Smith, WHO’s public information and defense officer. a statement. “However, so far they do not appear to cause more serious diseases or a higher mortality rate or any different clinical manifestations.”
He added that variants behave much like SARS-CoV-2 and cause similar diseases.
The researchers analyzed data from more than 50,000 patients with COVID-19 and compared their symptoms with previous records of people who had the flu to find that COVID-19 symptoms occur in a specific order.
This information can help distinguish people with COVID-19 from people who have the flu, helping people with COVID-19 to seek care and self-isolate sooner.
Experts with first-line experience emphasize that this progression is not always how the disease manifests itself, but it is a useful guide for health care providers.
Experts also monitor how new variants affect the body and whether there are changes in symptoms.