the seven symptoms that (all together) predict infection and require a swab- breaking latest news

Which symptoms should push me to do a swab to diagnose a possible Covid-19 infection? There are seven main ones and they must all be there together. Or rather, if they are all present, the probability of having a positive result for the coronavirus swab is 70-75%.

The study and the data

This was established by research just published in the PLOS Medicine journal
conducted by scholars ofImperial College of London on 1,147,345 volunteers with data collected in 8 test cycles conducted between June 2020 and January 2021 as part of the “Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1” (REACT-1) study. The results of the swabs carried out on these people were compared with the symptoms that had (possibly) manifested themselves a week before the PCR test.

The guidelines and the seven symptoms

Seven symptoms, that is loss or change of smell, loss or change of taste, fever, persistent cough, chills, loss of appetite and muscle aches they were associated – when perceived together – with positive buffer. The first 4 of these symptoms are currently used in the UK to determine eligibility to receive a tampon. “In order to improve the rates of positivity to the molecular swab and consequently to improve the control of virus transmission, we would propose to extend the list of symptoms used as triage to all 7 symptoms we have identified,” say the authors. The danger, the scientists continue, is that “many people with Covid will not be tested – and therefore will not self-isolate – because their symptoms do not match those used in current public health guidelines to help identify infected people.”
The difficulty of diagnosing the coronavirus has accompanied us since the beginning of the pandemic: the symptoms are often the same as in other forms of flu. “We understand that clear testing criteria are needed and that including many symptoms commonly found in other illnesses (such as seasonal flu) could risk people needlessly self-isolating. I hope that our findings on the most common symptoms will help optimize detection of infected people, ”they conclude from London.

Distinguish Covid from seasonal ailments

While last year the flu-like syndromes were almost absent, thanks to the numerous school quarantines and lockdowns that followed one another in the red zone, for more virus circulation is expected this autumn, as is happening with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), bronchiolitis, pneumonia or other respiratory viruses. How to distinguish the symptoms? The only sure way to make a differential diagnosis is to perform the swab, but, to decide whether to perform it, you can help yourself with the list of these symptoms, precisely because in general, if the symptoms occur individually (only cold, only fever, only vomiting and diarrhea) it is likely that we are facing seasonal ailments. We talked about it with Dr. Gianvincenzo Zuccotti, director of the Pediatrics department at the Buzzi hospital in Milan, in a focus on children in the linked article WHO
. The differences between people, however, can be considerable and the arrival of the Delta variant has also slightly changed the frequency of symptoms and the combination: more affecting the upper respiratory system such as sore throat, runny nose and headache and rarely anosmia (see related article WHO
).