THE UK has three, the US 11 and Australia 14. What are these? Covid-19 symptoms. That is according to advice from each country’s health body. How can the same disease affect people so differently in each country? The answer is: it doesn’t.
The disparity is a reflection of how little we have known about the symptoms of covid-19, until now. What we initially thought of as a respiratory disease is in fact a much more formidable enemy. It can kill via a two-pronged attack, through provoking our immune systems and disrupting blood clotting (see “How the coronavirus kills people – and how to stop it”)
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And for some people, covid-19 results in symptoms that can be strange, debilitating and long-lived (see “Why strange and debilitating coronavirus symptoms can last for months”). The list includes exhaustion, numbness, diarrhoea, extreme weight loss, brain fog, muscle pain and rashes.
That these symptoms don’t tally with information published by official guidelines is problematic. Not only does it leave thousands of people who are ill with little or no help and support, it also jeopardises our efforts to contain the spread of the virus.
“Strange symptoms include exhaustion, numbness, extreme weight loss, brain fog and rashes”
When people started sharing unusual symptoms on forums at the start of the outbreak, it is understandable that they were dismissed by some. People were in a state of hypervigilance about their health, and few were getting tested – in the UK at least – especially not those with odd-sounding complaints. Sticking to a shortlist of common symptoms was arguably the most effective way to identify and act on new cases.
But now we have evidence that symptoms can be varied and we must make sure we help those who are still ill weeks or even months after being infected. Crucially, unless we officially recognise – and publicise – all symptoms brought on by the coronavirus, we don’t stand a chance of identifying those who may have caught it, in order to test them and trace their contacts.
As the UK attempts to use its faltering test and trace scheme to prevent a second wave of cases (see “Contact-tracing England’s contact-tracing efforts still plagued by problems”) it seems ill-advised that the country still officially lists just three symptoms. Effective contact tracing will require listening to those who are sick, to protect others from a similar fate.
