Overlapping Symptoms of Covid-19 with other Diseases – Problems to Doctors & Common People
Pallab Sadhukan Neucrad Health, August 16, 2020
The word ‘covid-19’ has become a nightmare for everyone throughout the world. This name was given by World Health Organization (WHO) on February,2020. The word “COVID” stands for Corona Virus Disease and the suffix ‘19’ comes as this virus was first popped up in the year 2019 in Wuhan, China. From then, it has been spread in several countries apart from China, causing a worldwide pandemic.
The Virus behind this very pandemic is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus is spreading all over the world rapidly for some basic reasons. One of those is that, the symptoms that pop up after the virus is incorporated in body, are very common with other diseases. Majority of affected people simply ignore these symptoms as of other curable diseases. They come to contact with other people without knowing that he/she is contaminated with the virus and thus there is a huge probability of community spreading of this covid-19.
Some common symptoms of covid-19
- The major symptom is shortness of breath.
- Coughing and sneezing simultaneously.
- Mild fever (around 100°F) and sometimes chills.
- Sore throat.
- Loss of taste and smell.
- Headache etc.
So, actually, the symptoms of covid-19 are overlapping with symptoms of some other diseases. Here is detailed review of the symptoms of covid-19, which match with some other diseases.
A. Shortness of breath: Shortness of breath is a phenomenal symptom for indicating a covid-19 positive patient. But wait. Does this symptom only indicate that you are affected by covid-19? The answer is ‘No’.
Dyspnea (shortness of breath) indicates several diseases or disorders like, asthma, anaemia, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), damage or lesion in phrenic nerve (the phrenic nerve controls the movement of diaphragm), allergic reaction, hypertension etc. So, if you take shortness of breath as a symptom, this intersects between symptom of covid-19 and the symptom of upper mentioned disorders. So, clearly you can’t be confirmed that, the patient having shortness of breath is affected by covid-19.
B. Coughing and sneezing simultaneously: Another major symptom of a covid-19 positive patient is coughing and sneezing. Coughing and sneezing is considered as a non-threatening matter by most of the people, and the factor is that, most of the people don’t treat it unless it is in very serious stage. But the point is these Symptoms
are not only of covid-19. There are several diseases which can originate symptoms like coughing and sneezing. Like, respiratory illnesses (like influenza), attack of rhinovirus, dust allergy etc.
So, obviously these Symptoms of any other diseases are overlapping with symptoms of covid-19.
But, at any cost you should take precaution while sneezing or coughing. While sneezing or coughing, the droplets can be spread in the environment, causing other individuals affected around you. It doesn’t matter if it is Coronavirus or any other allergens.
C. Mild fever (around 100°F):
Mild fever, which is around 100°F is the pretty common symptom of major bacterial or viral incorporation in our body. So, just for having mild fever, no one can confirm that the patient is suffering from covid-19.
The best way to identify a covid-19 positive patient is, antibody test. But, keep in mind that while having mild fever you must not join in a social gathering.
D. Sore throat:
Sore throat is a classic symptom of virus attack, smoking etc. Also, streptococcal pharyngitis causes sore, scratchy throat. So, only assumption of covid-19, while having sore throat can’t be always right.
E. Headache:
Lot of people suffer from headache almost daily, and they try to cover it up, by having plenty of caffeine or taking other drugs until it turns into a very serious issue. Headache can be a symptom of migraine attack, sinus, tension etc. But it is obviously not a wise decision to declare a patient covid positive, in term of headache without any proper laboratory-based test.
F. Loss of taste and smell:
The scientific terminology of decreased taste sensation is hypogeusia and the scientific terminology of decreased olfactory sensitivity is hyposmia.
Major causes behind hypogeusia are damage or lesion in glossopharyngeal nerve, acute viral illness, brain injury etc. And reasons behind hyposmia are damage of olfactory nerves, tissue swelling and eventually common cold and cough. Covid-19 may have these Symptoms but, some other diseases have also these symptoms.
So, it is very clear that, some symptoms of other diseases are overlapping with symptoms of covid-19. You should definitely take precaution for the worst scenario. But you can’t assume blindly that someone is covid positive, simply by looking after their symptoms. Proper antibody test is always welcome for determining if the patient is covid-19 positive or not.
So, in a nutshell, the symptoms of covid-19 are cluster of several diseases. So, don’t be misguided by one particular symptom. If you have more or less all of the above-mentioned symptoms, then you ‘may’ have corona virus in your body. But, the best way to determine, is testing of nasopharyngeal swab sample of the patient.
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