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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made six additions to their official COVID-19 symptom list this week to help doctors and patients better understand who might be sick from the new coronavirus.
Newly added symptoms include chills, repeated tremors with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, and new loss of taste or smell.
They join the list of COVID-19 symptoms identified by the US Public Health Agency. USA At the start of the outbreak: fever, cough, and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.
If you have any of these symptoms, and especially if you have any of them, it’s a good idea to call your health care provider, health experts said.
You can also use the CDC self-test tool to help you decide when to seek medical care.
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“This is a completely new disease and we are learning tremendous amounts about it,” added Swartzerg, “including its clinical manifestations.”
The new coronavirus that keeps us trapped at home has been circulating in the human population for just four months.
As more people become infected, scientists gain a better understanding of how it spreads, how it makes us sick, and how best to treat it.
As of Monday, it has infected more than 3 million people worldwide and has resulted in more than 210,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University trackers.
A CDC spokesman said the recently added COVID-19 symptoms reflect changes in the case definition adopted by the Council of Territorial and State Epidemiologists (CSTE).
The CSTE is comprised of epidemiologists who work in health departments across the country and make recommendations to CDC on how to track and report disease.
Swartzenberg described them as the “eyes and ears of the CDC”.
“They are looking at these things that the doctors report and then they send that data to the CDC,” he said.
On April 5, the CSTE executive board approved a 10-page statement establishing best practices for tracking and reporting COVID-19 cases. The statement lists the symptoms that are most frequently identified with the disease.
The CSTE report notes that not all people infected with the coronavirus have the same symptoms. Some people have no symptoms at all, while about 80% of those who get sick with COVID-19 experience what doctors call “mild to moderate” symptoms, similar to having the flu, but not severe enough to require hospitalization. .
Fifteen percent of cases are severe enough to require supplemental oxygen, and 5% are critical enough to require mechanical ventilation.
The CSTE report said that people with COVID-19 usually develop their first symptoms, which include fever and mild breathing problems, about five days after infection.
Swartzberg said those symptoms can last between seven and 14 days, but acute cases can last longer than that.
“It is a bell-shaped curve, with some people sick for a few days and others with symptoms lasting more than two weeks,” he said.
As health experts continue to learn more about the disease, other symptoms are likely to be added to the CDC list, said Janet Hamilton, executive director of CSTE.
“It is so new and it is moving fast,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you when we plan to update it, but updating is our normal process when it comes to emerging infections.”
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