The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have added six more symptoms to the list of those related to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
And it is that one of the difficulties that professionals have encountered in controlling the coronavirus outbreak has been the vague and varied symptoms that those infected present. With an average incubation period of around five days, people infected with the coronavirus can transmit the disease long before they realize they are infected and are exhibiting symptoms. Once the disease takes hold in the body, it can range from severe illness and pneumonia to seemingly no symptoms (asymptomatic patients), making it very difficult to identify and quarantine infected people without adequate testing facilities. In fact, researchers estimate that the number of asymptomatic patients ranges between 25 and 50%, which probably explains much of the rapid worldwide spread of the disease.
The first most significant symptoms of the disease and of which we have been giving a good account for months, are : fever, dry and persistent cough and shortness of breath. As the pandemic has continued to unfold, new symptoms have emerged, and at this time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has concluded by adding six new symptoms for COVID-19 on its official website.
What are the new symptoms?
- Shaking or chills
- Cold
- Muscle pain
- Headache
- Throat pain
- Loss of taste or smell
According to the CDC, these symptoms “can appear 2 to 14 days after exposure to the virus .” One of the most prominent symptoms of these new additions to the list is precisely the loss of taste or smell, something that health experts suspected was an early symptom for a few weeks.
The CDC has also noted that medical attention should only be sought if “emergency warning signs for COVID-19” are experienced, including difficulty breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, confusion or inability to wake up, or lips or bluish face. Other symptoms that have been associated with the disease include diarrhea, skin rash, and fatigue.
The far-reaching symptoms demonstrate why social distancing measures are so important during the pandemic , as carriers of the disease who have mild or no symptoms may not be aware of transmitting the disease to others. While many will recover from COVID-19, as the grim statistics show, it is a deadly disease that can trigger serious disease even in seemingly young and healthy people, so it is vitally important to flatten the curve by staying in. home during the peak of the outbreak.
Remember that coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that normally affect only animals, but some of them have the ability to also transmit to people. COVID-19 is the infectious disease caused by the coronavirus and both the new virus and the disease were unknown before the outbreak broke out in Wuhan, China in December 2019.
Deciphering the COVID-19 genome
Using machine learning, a team of Western computer scientists and biologists has identified an underlying genomic signature for 29 different COVID-19 DNA sequences. This new tool will allow researchers to quickly and easily classify a deadly virus such as COVID-19 in just minutes, a process and pace of great importance for strategic planning and mobilizing medical needs during a pandemic. The study also supports the scientific hypothesis that COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) has its origin in bats such as Sarbecovirus , a subgroup of Betacoronavirus.
Reference: CDC
