Doctors report rise in ‘unusual symptoms’ among COVID-19 patients

People with diarrhoea, headaches, rashes, and sometimes those suffering from stroke are testing positive

Over the past two weeks, doctors across hospitals in Bengaluru have been seeing an increase in the number of patients with “unusual symptoms” testing positive for COVID-19. Symptoms range from diarrhoea and headache to skin rashes. This, doctors say, is different from the initial flood of cases where patients suffered from the more well-known symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, and loss of taste and smell.

Doctors are hoping that the State government and local authorities create more awareness on the lesser-known symptoms. In a few cases, patients are also reporting to hospitals after having suffered a stroke. Ravi Gopal Varma, lead consultant neurosurgery and chief of neurosciences, Aster CMI Hospital, said the incidence of stroke during the pandemic has increased. “It is now being found as one of the symptoms occurring among patients who have been infected by the virus. The SARS-CoV-2 causes a change in the blood flow of the infected person and leads to hypercoagulability, which further results in the incidence of stroke. In order to reduce such incidents, we have been giving blood thinners to patient infected with SARS-CoV-2,” he said.

However, many health practitioners point out that in a few cases, patients come to the hospital after they have a stroke and are later diagnosed with COVID-19.

According to R. Ravindra, Medical Director, Suguna Hospital, over the last 10 days, most patients who have tested positive did not have “traditional symptoms” such as fever or cough but instead had headache and diarrhoea, which is a “change in pattern or presentation”.

C.N. Manjunath, member of Karnataka’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee, said members of the committee too had observed this trend. “We will urge the government to spread awareness on this,” he said.

Giridhar Babu, a member of the committee, pointed out that the Government of India’s guidelines have included some of these symptoms. “As such, there seems to be too much emphasis on fever, which is not present in some people. Therefore, it does not represent any atypical presentation. It only shows that the infection is spreading to all strata of society and there might be different presentations in different individuals.”

C. Nagaraj, Director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, said as this is a viral infection, people who experience skin rashes, loss of taste and smell, diarrhoea, and headaches should get themselves tested for COVID-19.

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