A retrospective study from the United States has identified cough, myalgia and headache as the most common symptoms of Covid-19 among healthcare workers (HCWs).¹

Around 983 HCWs, who visited the employee health clinic for Covid-19 test at a tertiary care center between July 2020 and October 2020, were selected for the study. All of them were scanned for fever, with thermal body temperature scanners, at hospital entry when they reported for duty. They were asked to fill out a questionnaire detailing their symptoms before undergoing the test. Out of them, 93 (9.4%) tested positive for Covid-19 on RT PCR. Most of them had a history of exposure to Covid-19 or were directly handling Covid-19 patients.

Analysis of data revealed that overall cough was the most common presenting symptom reported by 81% of HCWs followed by myalgia (75%), headache (75%) and fatigue (75%). Cough and headache were common among HCWs older than 40 years, while myalgia and headache were the most common symptoms among HCW younger than 40 years. Only 53% had fever. Chest pain (18%) and rhinorrhea (9%) were the least reported symptoms. The male participants were found to present earlier to the clinic for testing compared to females; 1.82 days vs 2.8 days, respectively; this difference was however nonsignificant.

This retrospective observational study aimed to identify the symptoms of Covid-19 among frontline HCWs. Expectedly cough was the most common symptom. Presence of symptoms along with history of occupational exposure to Covid enhances detection of probable cases. However, a notable finding of the study was that only half of the participants reported fever as a symptom suggesting the futility of using thermal scanners as a tool to screen HCWs for Covid-19 as was the practice in the hospital where this study was conducted.

Reference

1. McFarlin K, et al. Characteristic features of COVID-19 illness among healthcare workers: a retrospective analysis. Cureus. 2021 Oct 16;13(10):e18816. doi: 10.7759/cureus.18816.