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From flu-like symptoms to loss of taste and smell: there are various signs of malaise with Covid-19. This makes detecting an infection even more difficult. A research team of Medical University of Vienna has now grouped the symptoms into seven different groups.
As a result, several symptoms often occur simultaneously in a disease, for example, a runny nose and sneezing. The researchers also looked at changes in the blood and the amount of antibodies after the disease.
Covid-19 symptoms: differentiation into seven different groups
The study involved 109 convalescents – people recovering from their disease – and 98 healthy volunteers. In the study, the team identified the following groups of symptoms:
- Flu symptom: Fever, chills, fatigue and cough
- Cold symptoms: Runny nose, sneezing, dry throat, nasal congestion
- Joint and muscle pains
- Inflammation of the eyes and mucous membranes
- Lung problems: Pneumonia and shortness of breath
- Gastrointestinal Problems: Diarrhea, nausea and headache
- Loss of Sense of smell and taste
The different forms can be distinguished from each other. Symptoms of flu and joint and muscle pain are “clearly systemic” forms. Organ-specific symptoms include gastrointestinal problems and loss of taste and smell, explains study author Winfried Pickl. The latter mainly affects people with a “young immune system”.
Long-term consequences of a coronal infection: changes in the blood
Changes can also be seen in the blood long after the disease. For example, some white blood cells are present in lower quantities than normal. Specifically, the scientists found fewer granulocytes.
In return, important immune cells remain active even after suffering from Covid-19: Pickl explains that CD4 and CD8 immune cells develop a “memory”. Furthermore, CD8 T cells remain highly activated. “This shows that the immune system is still dealing with the disease many weeks after the first infection“explains Pickl.
The researchers also made interesting findings regarding antibody production. It was possible to detect an increase in the immune cells that produce antibodies in the convalescent’s blood. In addition, the level of fever has been shown to play an important role in the amount of antibodies in a mild course: the higher the fever of the person concerned, the higher the levels of antibodies against the virus, they say on the university’s homepage.
Use knowledge to make a vaccine
With the new findings from the study published in the Journal “Allergy” published, the research team hopes to make further progress in obtaining a vaccine. The information obtained on the behavior of the immune system in the event of disease is particularly important for this. “Now it’s about implementing these findings and using them for vaccine development,” he says.
We will keep you updated on further developments related to the coronavirus in our ticker.
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