Researchers at the University of Southern California say they have discovered that COVID-19 symptoms tend to appear in an express order, a discovery that may allow for pre-detection and remedy for many patients.
“It’s kind of a smart guide, ” said Dr. Bob Lahita, an unaffiliated medical professor, told CBSN presenter Anne-Marie Green: “We can say for sure, reading as they did, I think it was 55,000 patients from China, observed the knowledge and observed the symptoms and discovered that this order was reproducible.”
According to the study, published in the medical journal Frontier Public Health, the maximum probable maximum order of symptoms is: fever, then cough and muscle pain, followed by nausea and / or vomiting, then diarrhea.
“Fever is number one, followed by coughing, followed by aches and pains, and not all seem to be in order, they may seem together,” Lahita said of the first organization of symptoms.After that, he says, come nausea and vomiting, followed by diarrhea.
Not all patients have the same set of symptoms, but new findings to highlight how COVID-19 differs from other well-known diseases.While fever and cough are also related to a number of other diseases, such as influenza, the study notes that it is the time when those symptoms appear, and the following gastrointestinal symptoms, that distinguish this virus.
In a news release about the study, USC scientist Peter Kuhn said that understanding the order of the virus’s symptoms is helpful in “overlapping disease cycles,” such as the upcoming flu season.
“Doctors can know what steps to take to care for the patient and can prevent the patient’s condition from getting worse,” Kuhn said.
To note the sequence, USC researchers, led by PhD student Joseph Larsen, reviewed medical records and other knowledge of more than 55,000 cases of coronavirus in China collected over a nine-day era in February, as well as a set of more than 1,000 cases.from December to January, as well as its informed effects of 2,470 cases of influenza in North America, Europe and the southern hemisphere from 1994 to 1998.
“It’s having this information, ” said Lahita. In addition to the things we all communicate about like loss of smell and loss of taste, back: fever, cough, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and then diarrhea are very clever signs of the fact that you could have COVID-19.”