Likely Order Of COVID-19 Symptoms Depends On Coronavirus Variant: Study

Los Angeles: The most likely order of symptoms that patients with COVID-19 experience is different for different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to a study. The researchers from the University of Southern California in the US wanted to know whether the order of COVID-19 symptoms varied in patients from different geographical regions or with various patient characteristics. Identifying order of symptom onset of infectious diseases might aid in differentiating symptomatic infections earlier in a population thereby enabling non-pharmaceutical interventions and reducing disease spread, they said.

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The study, published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, used modelling approach to predict symptom order in a set of 373,883 cases in the US between January and May 2020.

The most likely symptom order differed between the initial outbreak in China — where fever most often preceded cough, and nausea or vomiting was a common third symptom — and the subsequent spread to the US.

In the US, cough was most likely to be the first symptom, and diarrhoea was a more common third symptom.

By analysing additional data from Brazil, Hong Kong and Japan, the team showed that the different order of symptoms was associated not with geographic region, weather, or patient characteristics, but with SARS-CoV-2 variants.

The presence of the D614G variant in an area — which was predominant in the US in early 2020 — was associated with a higher likelihood of cough being the first COVID-19 symptom experienced by patients.

As Japan shifted from the original Wuhan reference strain to the D614G variant, symptom order shifted as well, the researchers said.

The study authors hypothesise that the increased transmission of D614G could be linked to the symptom order.

These findings indicate that symptom order can change with mutation in viral disease and raise the possibility that D614G variant is more transmissible because infected people are more likely to cough in public before being incapacitated with fever, they added.

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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity,  that is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.