National Health Service (NHS) United Kingdom Released a list this week 9 new symptoms associated with Kovid-19 in adults.
Previously, the British Public Service listed only three main classic symptoms of the disease: “New” and persistent cough (cough for more than one hour or the equivalent of 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours), high temperature or chills And Loss or change in smell or taste.
The list now includes the following symptoms:
- shortness of breath
- tiredness or exhaustion
- body ache
- Headache
- Sore throat
- stuffy or runny nose
- loss of appetite
- Diarrhea
- vomiting or nausea
Carla Kobayashi, infectious disease specialist at the Hospital Sirio-Libanas and technical adviser to the Ministry of Health, explains that, since the beginning of the pandemic, fever, cough and loss of smell were symptoms that were characteristic of Covid-19, but this scenario It’s not the same now.
With the advent of the ubiquitous ubiquity prevalent in the world today, these symptoms stopped appearing so often. This variant of SARS-CoV-2 actually marked an increased presence of “less common” symptoms.
“So we started having a very sore throat, a very headache, a lot of body aches,” says Kobayashi.
according to this ZOE COVID Symptom Study, from King’s College University Londonwhich records, via smartphone, how hundreds of thousands of infected people are feeling United KingdomThese are precisely the symptoms most commonly associated with this type of coronavirus, as well as runny nose and sneezing.
This is because the Omicron virus has a similarity, which scientists call “viral tropism”, to replication in the upper respiratory tract (nasal cavity, pharynx). Although, According to experts consulted by g1Why Omicron has this characteristic still needs to be investigated.
On the other hand, gastrointestinal symptoms, such as diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, characterize only a few cases of COVID, Kobayashi says.
Fever, cough, headache, sore throat, runny nose and nausea are some of the symptoms of COVID-19, a systemic disease. — Photo: Wagner Magalhes/G1
For this reason doctors believe that the British government’s decision was very wise, as the incidence of the variant is very high in the world. For example, in Brazil, an analysis by Fiocruz showed that 99.7% of the genomes sequenced in February corresponded to this variant.
“Most of these symptoms include [pelo NHS]The infection specialist says that fatigue, body aches, headache, coryza and gastrointestinal symptoms are the most typical symptoms of micron.
Ethel Maciel, a postdoctoral fellow in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, also notes another important factor in the NHS list update. With these new symptoms becoming official, operational protocols are facilitated.
Thus, people who enter health facilities with few mild symptoms can access COVID-19 diagnostic tests.
“If someone comes to the service” [de saúde] and says he has nausea and vomiting, for example. Health professionals do not request this test if these are not expected symptoms in the COVID list”, he says.
In Brazil, the Ministry of Health lists that SARS-CoV-2 infection is characterized by symptoms that differ from the clinical picture of the disease. The list has not been updated since May last year. hey g1 Contacted for more recent updates and looking forward to the return of the folder.
For Mantra, symptoms such as cough, sore throat or runny nose in mild cases and, in some cases, loss of smell and taste, diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, chills, myalgia (muscle pain), fatigue and/or headache appear to. “Headache).
Moderate cases may include mild symptoms such as persistent cough and fever. Severe and severe cases include respiratory distress, persistent chest pressure, severe respiratory failure, multiple organ dysfunction, etc.
The list does not include symptoms such as loss of appetite, nausea or vomiting, unlike the NHS listing.
subtypes of coronavirus
Another important factor to note here is that subtypes of the omicron, such as BA.2, have characteristics that are closely associated with those of the “normal” omicron, BA.1.
Although recognized so far as more contagious, there are no studies that indicate, for example, that BA.2 causes more severe forms of the disease or presents more worrying symptoms.
The image highlights an omicron version of the coronavirus taken under a microscope – Photo: Courtesy of the Medical Faculty of the University of Hong Kong
“The WHO Alert variant, the Underline, has features that are very much present in the Omicron variant,” explains Kobayashi.
The same goes for recombinant forms of SARS-CoV-2, such as the XE recombination (BA.1 – BA.2) which was identified by the WHO last week as possibly more infectious than BA. There was a community increase of 10. % greater than subvariant.
Doctors point out that there is no data to confirm this greater severity and warn that WHO made it clear that XE retains the characteristics of Omicron.
Furthermore, studies on this transmissibility of recombination are preliminary; The organization awaits further research on this topic.
“XE is related to the omicron variant, unless significant differences in transmission and disease characteristics, including its severity, can be reported,” the WHO warned.
Combination of Delta and ‘Micron’ There is little evidence of circulation, transmission and severity.
For this reason, infectious disease experts from Syrio-Liban emphasize that we should be aware of flu symptoms.
“Symptoms [característicos de agora] Those are the ones we experienced in December and January: fever, headache, body aches, headache, fatigue, gastrointestinal pain”, he says.
