UK scientists claim that four symptoms of COVID-19 are listed as signs of the disease

Scientists from the UK have submitted a request to the British government to expand the official list of COVID-19 symptoms, as of now It only lists three possible signs of the disease, contrary to guidelines from the World Health Organization (13) and the United States (11).

The official NHS guide page mentions Fever, cough, and changes in taste or smell are the only official symptoms, a list that has not been updated for several months.

On the other hand, the World Health Organization lists fever, cough and tiredness among the most common, but also among the least cases of loss of smell and taste, nasal congestion, conjunctivitis, sore throat, headache, muscle or joint pain, rash, nausea, diarrhea and chills . All this without taking into account the other symptoms that appear in more serious forms of the disease.

The scientists who issued the warning say in an article in the Official Gazette that this situation in the UK could “miss or delay the identification of many cases of Covid-19”. British Medical Journal.

Callum Semple of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) explained to the BBC: “With the elderly being vaccinated, relatively more young people are getting sick and have a different set of symptoms. By expanding the list of symptoms, we think we’ll discover another third case. But the most important thing is that we will discover it the day before, which provides a greater opportunity to break the chains of transmission and stop the spread of the virus.”.

The article authors note that a recent population-based study from Arizona (USA) reported that the most common first symptoms were sore throat (19%), headache (16%), cough (13%), and a runny nose or cold. Symptoms (12%) and fatigue (12%) are mostly not considered by British standards. “These symptoms are more common in school-age children and young adults, who now account for a higher proportion of transmission because older people are being vaccinated,” they noted.

As the researchers acknowledged, Expanding the list will greatly increase the demand for PCR and antigen tests, but they point out that the benefit of detecting cases in their early stage is key to fighting the epidemic..

“Although restricting access to symptomatic testing to people with ‘official’ symptoms could control the volume of testing, This narrow definition is now likely to prevent transmission control التحكمIn addition, increased alerts to symptoms would also encourage individual preventive isolations.

The huge rise in infections in delta forms in the UK, which gives the country an infection rate more than four times that of the European Union, is causing deep concern on the continent.

According to the latest official figures, 25,000 new cases were recorded daily on Wednesday, compared to 15,000 on Wednesday of last week. The average for the past seven days was 19,000, while in mid-May it was less than 2,000.

The United Kingdom is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic in the world, with more than 128,000 deaths confirmed among a population of 66 million.

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