Every day, Le Parisien mobilizes to answer your questions around the coronavirus. Today we are interested in the questioning of Ferreira who is worried about whether digestive disorders can be a sign of contamination with Covid-19.
It is indeed a possibility. Even if digestive disorders (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea) are rare, they are part of the symptoms of a Covid-19 infection recognized by the WHO (World Health Organization).
However, it reminds you that the most common symptoms are fever, fatigue and a dry cough. But "for some patients, it can also be pain, nasal congestion, a runny nose, a sore throat or diarrhea," says the WHO.
50% of patients concerned in a Chinese study
It was this last case that had particularly alerted Pierre Ménès, the journalist from Canal +, as he had told a posteriori, after his hospitalization: "After a very very wise confinement at home, I was forced to call the doctors. I was totally exhausted, with terrible diarrhea ”.
Symptoms and chronology of the evolution of Covid-19: we take stock in pictures @LeParisienInfog> pic.twitter.com/eW6bwoCoEB
- Le Parisien (@le_Parisien) April 1, 2020A study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology goes in the direction of a particular attention to pay to the digestive symptoms. Carried out in China on patients who presented to three hospitals in the Chinese province of Hubei, between January 18 and February 28, it highlights the prevalence of digestive symptoms in infected patients. Of the 204 patients followed, almost half went to hospital with various digestive disorders such as diarrhea (34%), vomiting (4%) or abdominal pain (2%) in addition to fever or breathing problems.
The scientists concluded that "clinicians should recognize that digestive symptoms such as diarrhea may be a sign of Covid-19, and in rare cases the only one, and therefore the index of suspicion in patients should be increased patients with digestive disorders without waiting for the appearance of respiratory symptoms ”. Vigilance therefore.
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