Rains are here and the monsoon showers will soak the entire nation. It is also that time of the year when common colds and flu fevers are on the rise, but with Covid-19 infections touching almost 2.9 lakh in India, panic response towards any seasonal ailment is natural. The question arises how to distinguish between common cold and corona symptoms?
Before you hit the panic, button and run to your nearest centre for the Covid-19 test and expose yourself and others to more health risks, it is better to decode your symptoms minutely. This is how to distinguish between common cold and corona symptoms?
Although COVID-19 patients may lose their sense of smell, they can breathe freely, do not tend to have a runny or blocked nose, and cannot detect bitter or sweet tastes, according to a study.
The researchers hope that their work could help develop smell and taste tests for fast COVID-19 screening – in primary care and emergency departments. As per the journal Rhinology, it has been found that COVID-19 infects the brain and central nervous system. The researchers said it was this loss of true taste which seemed to be present in the COVID-19 patients compared to those with a cold.
COVID-19 behaves differently to other respiratory viruses, for example by causing the body’s immune system to overreact, known as a cytokine storm, and by affecting the nervous system.
They found that smell loss was much more profound in the COVID-19 patents, and they were less able to identify smells, and were not able to identify bitter or sweet tastes.
Shortness of breath and dry cough without sputum also should ring alarm bells. Patients also tend to develop symptoms like headache and Diarrhoea if infected by Covid-19, however common cold patients may rarely face these symptoms.
Although such tests could not replace formal diagnostic tools such as throat swabs, they could provide an alternative when conventional tests are not
If you face difficulty in breathing and oxygen content in your blood is low, you should visit your doctor immediately. Children and elderly patients even with mild symptoms should seek medical advice at earliest. So this is how to distinguish between common cold and corona symptoms?
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