A number of doctors said that the symptoms of the Corona virus have become milder and follow a specific pattern, noting that the features that characterized the disease in the past, such as a dry cough or loss of the sense of taste or smell, have become less common.
According to NBC News, doctors have indicated that the current symptoms have become more concentrated in the upper respiratory system, and are closer to the symptoms of allergies or the common cold.
“It’s not the same typical symptoms we’ve seen before,” said Dr. Eric Etting, vice president of operations for emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. “Most patients now complain of nasal congestion and sneezing, and usually a mild sore throat.”
Etting pointed out that the Corona patients he recently treated “were suffering from really mild symptoms,” adding: “We did not know that they were infected with the virus until they were tested.”
The Zoe COVID Symptom study, which collects data on self-reported symptoms in the UK through smartphone apps, supported Etting. Its findings suggest that sore throats became more common, after the Omicron variant became dominant in late 2021. In contrast, loss of sense of smell became less prevalent, and the rate of hospital admissions decreased compared to the summer and fall of 2021.
Dr. Grace McComsey, a professor of clinical and translational research at Case Western University in the United States, said that symptoms have begun to follow a specific pattern, as they now often begin with a sore throat and then nasal congestion.
She indicated that some patients also suffer from headache, fatigue, muscle pain, fever, chills, and sometimes postnasal drip (nasal secretions descending from the back area of the nose to the throat), which is a symptom that may lead to coughing, even though coughing is not one of the primary symptoms of the virus. currently.
Sore throat, fatigue and muscle aches usually last a few days, while nasal congestion can sometimes last a few weeks, McComsey said.
It was estimated that only about 10 to 20 percent of Corona patients lose their sense of taste or smell now, compared to about 60 to 70 percent, early in the epidemic.
The mild symptoms caused by the disease at the present time are due to immunity from vaccines and previous infections (AP)
Regarding diarrhea, one of the most common symptoms in the past, Etting said that he had not seen many cases of diarrhea among his patients recently.
Etting and McComsey confirmed that the number of people who now need to be hospitalized due to the virus has become very small, and they also pointed out that many patients recover without the need to take antiviral drugs.
Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virus and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, attributed the mild symptoms currently caused by the disease to immunity from vaccines and previous infections.
Barouch said: “In general, the severity of Corona is much less than it was a year or two ago. This is not because the variables are less powerful. “But because the immune responses are higher.”
Doctors stressed the need to receive booster doses of Corona vaccines, especially for the elderly, noting that the weakness of symptoms does not mean that the severity of the disease has disappeared.
2023-09-17 09:02:07
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