Researchers at the University of Southern California have identified the possible order in which the symptoms of the coronavirus appear. According to the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, fever, cough and muscle aches occur first, followed by nausea and / or vomiting and then diarrhea.
Knowledge of the range of its symptoms Covid-19 may help patients seek immediate care or decide to isolate themselves immediately, scientists say. It could also help doctors rule out other diseases or plan how to treat patients,
"This series is very important to know when we have overlapping cycles of diseases such as influenza, which coincide with infections of the Covid-19Said Peter Koon, a professor of medicine, biomedical engineering and aerospace engineering at the University of Southern California. He added: "Doctors can determine what steps they need to take to care for the patient and can prevent the condition from getting worse."
"As there are now better approaches to treatments for him Covid-19"Identifying patients earlier could reduce hospitalization time," said Joseph Larsen, lead author of the study and a professor at the University of Southern California.
Best treatment decisions
Fever and cough are often associated with a variety of respiratory illnesses, including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). But time and symptoms in the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract set him apart Covid-19.
"The upper gastrointestinal tract (ie, nausea / vomiting) appears to be affected before the lower gastrointestinal tract (ie, diarrhea) in the Covid-19, which is the opposite of MERS and SARS ", the scientists report.
The authors looked at the range of symptoms in the spring from symptom rates in more than 55.000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in China, collected from February 16-24 by the World Health Organization. They also studied a data set of about 1.100 cases collected from December 11 to January 29. by a team of experts from the National Health Commission of China.
To compare the order of its symptoms Covid-19 with the flu, the researchers looked at data from 2.470 cases in North America, Europe and the Southern Hemisphere reported to health authorities from 1994 to 1998.
"The order of the symptoms matters. Knowing that each disease develops differently means that doctors can detect earlier if someone may have Covid-19 "or another disease that can help them make better treatment decisions," Larsen said.
Source: Sigmalive