COVID-19: Is the virus related to the digestive symptoms?

Lahore, 20th March: Chinese researchers have shown through studies that the patients suffering from the coronavirus show the symptoms of diarrhea and digestive problems along with the respiratory issues.

According to the reports, in nearly half of the patients suffering from the coronavirus have shown the symptoms of digestive illness and diarrhea, while many undergo respiratory issues, these findings are from the early stages of the COVID-19.

“Clinicians must bear in mind that digestive symptoms, such as diarrhea, maybe a presenting feature of COVID-19, and that the index of suspicion may need to be raised earlier in these cases rather than waiting for respiratory symptoms to emerge,” wrote the investigators from the Wuhan Medical Treatment Expert Group for COVID-19.

The researchers analyzed data from 204 COVID-19 patients, average age nearly 55, who were admitted to three hospitals in the Hubei province between Jan. 18 and Feb. 28, 2020. The average time from symptom onset to hospital admission was 8.1 days.

However, the finding showed that patients with digestive symptoms had a longer time from symptom onset to hospital admission than patients without digestive symptoms, 9 days versus 7.3 days.

This suggests that patients with digestive symptoms sought care later because they didn’t yet suspect they had COVID-19 due to a lack of respiratory symptoms, such as cough or shortness of breath, the researchers explained.

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Patients with digestive symptoms had a variety of issues including, diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite and abdominal pain. The researchers have found that as the disease becomes more severe the digestive symptoms become more serious too.

According to this study, if the doctors miss the digestive symptoms in COVID-19 patients, they will most probably be kept unchecked which may lead to their earlier death. However, it is important for the doctors to keep in mind the patients who complain about the digestive issues or the disease may be not diagnosed until the respiratory issues emerge.

In this study, COVID-19 patients with digestive symptoms have worse clinical outcomes than the ones without digestive problems. It is necessary for the doctors to look out for those people as well who complain of diarrhea and digestive issues so they can also get the timely proper treatment.

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