How to tell the difference whether we have the corona virus or we just have the common cold? Maybe it can be known from the sequence of symptoms.
Symptoms of contracting COVID-19 have almost the same symptoms as when contracting other viruses, such as the common cold, making it difficult for sufferers to know what’s really going on in their bodies.
But now that researchers are starting to be able to provide a picture when we contract the corona virus, the first symptom to experience is fever. Meanwhile, when experiencing the common cold, the first symptom is a cough.
A study recently published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health by researchers at the University of South California (USC) in the United States using data from about 55 thousand positive cases of COVID-19.
Researchers say the initial symptoms of being exposed to corona have consecutive symptoms, namely:
- Fever
- Cough
- Nausea and / or vomiting
- Diarrhea
The importance of being able to distinguish between having the flu and the corona virus is very important, because COVID-19 has the potential for transmission to be two or three times higher than the flu.
“It is important to know the sequence of symptoms when there is a seasonal illness similar to flu when there is COVID-19 transmission,” said researcher Peter Kuhn, professor of medicine and biomedicine at USC.
However, according to data from the Department of Health in Australia, cough is more frequently reported as the first symptom among COVID-19 patients, at 42 percent compared to fever which is only 30 percent.
Researchers in the United States also found that there was little difference between those who contracted COVID-19 compared to viruses that were also highly contagious, such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The upper respiratory tract is attacked by the virus first than the lower respiratory tract for COVID-19, which is different from MERS and SARS.
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