LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Researchers from the University of Southern California announced Thursday that they have found the probable sequence in which COVID-19 symptoms first appear.
A nurse cares for a coronavirus patient in the intensive care unit at El Centro Regional Medical Center in hard-hitting Imperial County on July 28 in El Centro, California. (Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images)
According to a new study, people who contract the virus first develop a fever, followed by a cough and muscle aches, then nausea like vomiting and diarrhea.
The scientists said that knowing the order of the symptoms of COVID-19 can help those who have contracted the virus to know when to seek care and perhaps help in their decision to leave isolation sooner. – preventing further spread.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, was led by doctoral candidates Joseph Larsen and scientists Peter Kuhn and James Hicks at the Convergent Science Institute at USC Michelson Center in Cancer.
The information could also help doctors rule out other diseases and allow them to better treat patients earlier in their illness – possibly improving outcomes.
“This sequence is especially important to know if we have overlapping cycles of diseases such as the flu that coincide with COVID-19 infections,” said Kuhn, a USC professor of medicine, biomedical engineering, and space and mechanical engineering. “Physicians can determine what steps to take to care for the patient, and they can prevent the patient’s condition from deteriorating.”
The scientists said fever and cough are often associated with a variety of respiratory diseases, including influenza, Middle East respiratory syndrome and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, but said the timing and additional symptoms in the gastrointestinal tract set COVID-19 apart.
“The order of the symptoms matters,” Larsen said. “Knowing that each disease progresses differently means that doctors can identify sooner if someone is likely to have COVID-19, or another disease, which can help them make better treatment decisions.”
To determine the timeline of COVID symptoms, the study’s authors analyzed more than 55,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus collected by the World Health Organization in China from February 16-24. They also studied a dataset of nearly 1,100 cases collected by the China Medical Treatment Expert Group through the National Health Commission of China from December 11-Jan. 29.
The researchers also examined data from 2,470 flu cases in North America, Europe and the southern hemisphere reported between 1994 and 1998 to compare the order of COVID-19 symptoms with that of the common flu.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
.
