Sudden loss of smell, diarrhoea, vomiting experienced by some

PATIENTS MIGHT EXPERIENCE GASTRIC SYMPTOMS LATER ON IN THE COURSE OF THE INFECTION, SAY DOCS

NEW DELHI: Fever and cough are the most common symptoms of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and are the first to appear, according to doctors and initial analyses of cases. The behaviour is because the Sars-cov-2 virus enters the body by attaching to receptors in the respiratory tract, clinging to the back of the throat before moving down to inflame the lungs. Since December 2019, the disease has affected at least 380,000 people across the globe and killed around 16,500.

Fever is the first sign of the disease and starts showing up after an average incubation period of five days, according to an analysis of 191 hospitalised patients of Wuhan in February. It found that 94% of the patients developed a fever of 37.3°Celsius (99°F) or more, 79% had a cough, 23% reported fatigue and 15% had muscle pain.

Doctors in UK have warned that a sudden loss of sense of smell could also be a marker of the new Covid-19 disease. Hospitalised patients may also develop gastrointestinal symptoms, while around 5% experience diarrhoea and another 4% experience nausea and vomiting, found the Wuhan study of 191 patients.

A newer, pre-print version of another study of 204 patients from Hubei, released on Monday, puts this number at a high 50% of all the patients studied. “In India, diarrhoea has been recorded in a few patients but it does not seem to be a predominant symptom. Predominant symptoms are fever, cough and shortness of breath. As for the loss of sense of smell, we have not recorded it. But I cannot rule it out either because I do not think that history is being taken,” said Dr Nivedita Gupta, a senior scientist with the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Of the patients who experience gastrointestinal symptoms, almost 79% have a lack of appetite, 34% have diarrhoea, around 4% vomit, and almost 2% have abdominal pain.

“It does look from the emerging data that more people have gut symptoms. This is not at all surprising as the ACE 2 receptor that the virus uses to enter the host cells are most highly expressed in the small intestine, apart from the respiratory tract. The numbers reported initially must have been lower because the patients coming in would have been sicker and with severe respiratory symptoms, so doctors would be worried about that first,” said Dr Gagandeep Kang, director, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute.