“Covid language”: a new symptom of the virus?

While we were beginning to know the symptoms of Covid-19 at their fingertips (fatigue, cough, body aches, loss of taste and smell, diarrhea, respiratory problems), from hearing doctors over and over again to detail them, here is that new signs of the disease appear. Rarer, we find for example conjunctivitis or skin rashes. But one of them seem to emerge a little more than the others. In this case, strange oral lesions that Tim Spector, an epidemiologist from renowned King’s College London called “the Covid language”.

This researcher is also the director of the application ZOE COVID Symptom Study, a platform that allows patients to report all their symptoms, from the most common to the most unusual, and which currently brings together more than 4.5 million users. This is how he was able to observe the resurgence of this new sign of the disease.

“One in five people affected by the coronavirus have less common symptoms that are not on the official list of the Public Health England, such as rashes. I am seeing a growing number of Covid tongues and strange mouth ulcers “, he explained on Twitter.

And walking the talk, he shared on January 13 a snapshot of the tongue of one of his patients, covered with whitish spots. This prompted him to advise staying at home, in case of doubt, and in particular “if you have a strange symptom, or even just a headache and fatigue”.

Much like the loss of taste and smell, the “Covid tongue” could persist for a long time after recovery, according to the epidemiologist who posted another photo on Twitter on Jan. 17. “Other images are coming from the mysterious tongue associated with a range of illnesses. But it is now also being reported to Covid and can last for weeks or months,” he stressed.

Certainly, rashes, spots or lesions on the tongue and canker sores are not on the official list of symptoms of Covid-19 established by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, Tim Spector is not the first to report these unusual cases. Several scientific studies have evoked in recent months symptoms affecting the mouth of patients.

Last July, a team from the University Hospital of Madrid mentioned in the dermatology journal Jama Network that out of 21 patients with Covid-19 and rash, 6 of them (29%) had enanthema, that is, lesions of the oral cavity. The age range of these patients was between 40 and 69 years, and 4 of 6 (66%) were women. In detail, the study states that these spots usually appeared around 12 days after people first felt the symptoms of the disease.

In addition, work published in June by British researchers in the scientific journal Nature also suggest a link between Covid-19 and oral ulceration or blistering in the mouth. These reported cases often remain exceptional. A rarity that researchers qualify, acknowledging that for safety reasons, the oral cavity of patients with Covid-19 is rarely examined.