COVID, Immunity and Nutrition News

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the common and chief symptoms known till now include persistent cough, a high temperature and a loss of smell or taste.¹

Recent studies from King’s College London state that the early symptoms could be wide-ranging and also may differ based on the sex and age groups. A study was conducted from the data taken from the Zoe COVID Symptom Study App. It was observed that after being infected from COVID-19, men suffered more shortness of breath, fatigue, chills, while women reported a loss of smell, chest pain and persistent cough. Also, the elderly group above 60 reported instances of diarrhoea but the loss of smell was less common.¹

In another study, scientists used current NHS diagnostic criteria and a type of machine learning to predict the early signs of COVID-19 based on age, sex and health conditions, which showed that symptoms of early COVID-19 infection were different among various groups. 18 different symptoms associated with COVID-19 were examined and loss of smell, chest pain, persistent cough, abdominal pain, blisters on the feet, eye soreness and unusual muscle pain were considered as early signs of COVID-19 infection. They also concluded that fever was not an early symptom in any group though till now it was known to be an early COVID-19 symptom. The researchers also concluded that the symptoms observed due to infection from the originals strain which caused the Pandemic in Wuhan, China, the alpha variant, the currently spreading delta variant and subsequent variants would exhibit different symptoms across population groups.¹

Also in a journal published by “The Lancet Digital Health” concluded that early symptoms varied among different age groups. The early symptoms in the first three days in 16-39 years were much different from the early symptoms among those over 60  or over 80-year.²

Many artificial intelligence models are being used in Great Britain to study the most common symptoms of early COVID-19 infection. It was found that the AI models took into account only the symptoms which were prevalent when the infection is maximum in a person and was not so accurate in recognizing possible diseases just within the first e days of onset of symptoms.²

The recent studies and use of artificial intelligence can in the log run help to identify and know the various symptoms can help the people get tested at the earliestand minimize the risk of spreading and reduce the related complexities.

References:

1. Early COVID-19 symptoms differ among age groups, research finds 2021 [updated 30-Jul-21; cited 2021 7-Sep-21]. Available from: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210730165439.htm.
2. Imra. Corona study: early symptoms differ significantly depending on age. 2021. Available from:Corona study: early symptoms differ significantly depending on age (in-24.com)