2023-09-18 15:14:52
Although an international public health emergency has no longer been declared, the coronavirus continues to circulate in the world and causes COVID-19 disease (Getty)
Although mobility in cities and between countries seems normal and many of us forget the fateful March 2020, the coronavirus is still circulating in the world and the pandemic continues. Since its inception, more than 770 million people have already been confirmed with the COVID-19 disease and 6,957,216 deaths, according to data reported to the World Health Organization (WHO).
It is clear that the way in which the disease manifests itself in people was changing. Already, doctors say they are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish COVID from allergies or the common cold, even as hospitalizations increase. Of course, testing is a fundamental tool to detect whether it is the virus or not.
Symptoms that were characteristic of coronavirus infection, such as dry cough or loss of taste or smell, are now less frequent if the increases in COVID cases that have been recorded since last July in different countries are taken into account. countries.
Instead, doctors see a milder disease, concentrated mostly in the upper respiratory tract.
The symptoms of COVID today are more confused with those of a cold or an allergy (Getty)
“COVID today is increasingly indistinguishable from other respiratory conditions,” said the vice president of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (SADI), Adrián Morales, when consulted by Infobae.
”They are not the same typical symptoms that we saw before. “It’s a lot of congestion, sometimes sneezing, and usually a mild sore throat,” said Dr. Erick Eiting, vice president of emergency medicine operations at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York, United States. The sore throat usually comes first, he added, and then the congestion.
In dialogue with Infobae, Dr. Javier Farina, from the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (SADI), explained that “the change is due to the degree of immunity already acquired by having previously had the infection or by having the protection of the vaccine.”
In the UK, the Zoe COVID Symptom Study collected data on self-reported symptoms via smartphone apps. He has documented the same trend. Their findings suggest that sore throat became more common after the Omicron variant became dominant in late 2021.
Loss of smell, on the other hand, became less widespread, and the rate of hospital admissions decreased compared to summer and autumn 2021. Doctors now describe a clearer and more coherent pattern of symptoms.
Sneezing and sore throat are some of the most common symptoms today/File
”Almost everyone I’ve seen has had really mild symptoms,” Eiting said of his urgent care patients, adding: “The only way we knew it was Covid was because we happened to be testing them.”
Dr. Grace McComsey, vice dean of clinical and translational research at Case Western University, said some patients have reported having “a burning sensation like they’ve never had, even with strep in the past.” “Then as soon as the congestion sets in, the throat seems to get better,” she said.
Along with congestion, according to doctors, some patients experience headache, fatigue, muscle aches, fever, chills or post-nasal drip that can cause cough, although cough is not a main symptom.
Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, also attributed the mild symptoms doctors are seeing to immunity from vaccines and previous infections.
People with COVID may also have headache, fatigue, muscle aches, fever, chills, or post-nasal drip (Getty Images)
”Overall, the severity of Covid is much less than a year ago and two years ago. That’s not because the variants are less robust. It is because the immune responses are greater,” said Barouch. Symptoms may appear 2 to 14 days after exposure to the virus.
In Argentina, after detecting symptoms, the people who can access testing in public hospitals are those considered in prioritized groups: people over 50 years of age, pregnant people, people with comorbidities, such as diabetes, obesity grades 2-3, disease cardiovascular, chronic kidney disease, chronic respiratory disease, and chronic liver disease.
Also within the prioritized groups are people living with HIV, people with intellectual disabilities, carriers of oncological or oncohematological diseases, pre- or post-transplant patients, carriers of autoimmune diseases or undergoing immunosuppressive-immunomodulatory or biological treatment, people with tuberculosis. .
In addition, essential workers (workers or residents of long-stay institutions, health services or security personnel) and those living with people at risk must be tested.
The virus is spread when an infected person exhales, coughs, sneezes, talks, shouts or sings. For this reason, it is important to reduce the use of closed spaces or use permanent cross ventilation (Getty)
One of the reasons for the increase in COVID cases would be the entry into the country of a sublineage of the coronavirus that is more transmissible. It is popularly called Eris. Its WHO name is Ómicron EG.5. Another reason why cases are growing is because many people no longer have the protection of vaccines because they did not go to get the boosters.
In addition to vaccines, it should be noted that the coronavirus is mainly transmitted through the air. If a person is infected (with or without symptoms) they can spread the virus by exhaling, coughing, sneezing, talking, shouting or singing. For this reason, it is important to reduce the use of closed spaces or use permanent cross ventilation.
“Ventilation is key to avoiding outbreaks or supercontagion events in closed places where many people share the air,” scientist Andrea Pineda Rojas, a researcher at the Sea and Atmosphere Research Center, which depends on Conicet and the Faculty, stressed to Infobae. of Exact and Natural Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, and one of the organizers of the Ventilar campaign of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Argentina.
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