COVID-19

Sign and Symptoms

The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough and shortness of breath.

Incubation Period

Studies done on coronaviruses such as MERS- CoV and SARS- CoV indicate that the incubation period of the virus is between 2 and 14 days. Age and immune status of the patient have shown difference in the duration between onset and severity of symptoms.

Symptoms

The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough and shortness of breath. Patients might also have headache, anorexia or loss of appetite, cough with or without sputum production, muscle pain or myalgia, fatigue, sore throat and chest pain. To lesser degree patients may experience rhinorrhea, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Complications

The most common complications of COVID-19 are acute respiratory distress syndrome, cardiomyopathy or cardiac illnesses, liver and renal failure. Patients with such complications might have severe difficulty of breathing, persistent chest pain or pressure in the chest, new onset of confusion or inability to arouse, and discoloration of the lips or face.

Most of the patients will have no symptoms to mild pneumonia symptoms. About fifteen percent of the patients will have severe symptoms such as hypoxia or low oxygen saturation in the blood and lung involvement. Five percent of the patients will be critical with multi organ involvement requiring intensive critical unit care. Even though it is too early to determine the fatality rate of the disease, currently it is considered to be around three percent.

What to do if you are Sick

If you have symptoms of COVID-19;
- Isolate yourself from other family members or friends
- Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or use inside of your flexed arm when you sneeze or cough
- Cover your nose and mouth with mask
- Throw used tissues and clothing in the bin or trash can
- Do not take any medication which is not prescribed by a physician
- Call 8335 or 952 to get medical help

COVID-19 Vs other respiratory illnesses

All flu like symptoms are not due to COVID-19. Most of COVID-19 symptoms can appear as major sign and symptoms of other respiratory illnesses such as common cold, flu and allergies. Flu is a highly contagious respiratory illness caused by an influenza virus. Both flu and common cold are respiratory illness with different viruses as causative agents. They differ mainly in severity as common colds do not result in serious health problems.

Risk Factors For Seviour Illness

All flu like symptoms are not due to COVID-19. Most of COVID-19 symptoms can appear as major sign and symptoms of other respiratory illnesses such as common cold, flu and allergies. Flu is a highly contagious respiratory illness caused by an influenza virus. Both flu and common cold are respiratory illness with different viruses as causative agents. They differ mainly in severity as common colds do not result in serious health problems.

Age – older age is strongly associated with higher mortality rate.

Sex – male predominance is observed in both infection and mortality.

Cigarette smoking – due to contact of fingers with lips during smoking and sharing of mouth pieces and hoses during smoking water pipes, transmission of COVID-19 is high in smokers. In addition to increase transmission, people that smoke have reduced capacity that lead to increase risk of serious illness.

Co morbidities – presence of co morbidities such as lung, cardiac disease, diabetes and other illness suppressing the immunity of the patients are linked with higher mortality rate.