Pay
attention to any lingering symptoms from that “bad cold.”
BY KORIN MILLER 09/09/2020
Whether you had a 'bad
cold' or recently endured a cough that would not quit, it’s only natural to
wonder if you might have had COVID-19 without
realising it. That’s especially true now that infectious disease experts say
the virus was likely already spreading before cities started to lock down and
put social distancing orders in place.
'As the weeks progress,
it’s become evident that this is a virus that was widespread throughout our
country, particularly in more populated areas, sooner than we thought,'
says William Schaffner, M.D.,
an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University
School of Medicine.
So, could you have had
COVID-19 without realising it? It’s possible. 'Most people who have coronavirus
have an uncomplicated case of infection, and it could be indistinguishable from
the cold or influenza,' explains infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, M.D.,
senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security. Plus, some
people have no symptoms at all – up to 40% of infections, according to
estimates, are asymptomatic.
Unfortunately, there’s no
way to know with 100% certainty if that illness you dealt with last winter was
COVID-19 or if you happened to pick up an asymptomatic case at some time. But
experts say some signs can be tip-offs that you might have had COVID-19
already. Here are the top ones to know, plus what it means for immunity.
1. You had a 'bad cold' in early 2020.
Early in the pandemic,
people believed that COVID-19 didn’t start circulating until late February and
March. New research from the
University of Texas suggests otherwise. For the study, scientists analysed
throat swabs taken last winter in people who had suspected flu cases. These
swabs were done in Wuhan, China (where the novel coronavirus originated) and
Seattle, Washington (where the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the
U.S.).
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The researchers discovered
that for every two cases of the flu, there was one case of COVID-19. As a
result, they believe COVID-19 likely arrived sometime around Christmas.
'It took longer to get out
to rural areas so, if you were on a farm this winter and you had the sniffles,
you probably just had a cold. If you were in another major city, you might have
had a COVID infection and never knew it,' Dr. Schaffner says.
It can be tough to
distinguish a cold from a mild form of COVID-19 without a test, depending on
which symptoms you experience, he says, but colds don’t typically cause
shortness of breath, severe headaches, or gastrointestinal symptoms like
COVID-19 can. Here’s the full list of official symptoms:
·
Fever or chills
·
Cough
·
Shortness of breath or
difficulty breathing
·
Fatigue
·
Muscle or body aches
·
Headache
·
New loss of taste or
smell
·
Sore throat
·
Congestion or runny nose
·
Nausea or vomiting
·
Diarrhoea
2. You lost your sense of smell or taste at one
point.
Loss of smell and taste has
been a big hallmark of COVID-19. While this symptom doesn’t occur for everyone,
Dr. Adalja points out that it’s now strongly linked with the novel coronavirus.
Preliminary data from
the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) found
that, in COVID-19 patients who lost their sense of smell, 27% had 'some
improvement' within about seven days, while most were better within 10 days.
Worth noting: It’s also
possible to temporarily lose these senses with other respiratory conditions,
like a cold, the flu, a sinus infection, or even with seasonal allergies. But
experts say that the symptom can linger in some people and last for months
after recovering from COVID-19.
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3. You’ve been dealing with unexplained hair
loss.
This hasn’t been widely
studied in the context of COVID-19, but many people who have recovered from the
virus are reporting issues with hair loss.
“There are definitely people who got infected and didn’t notice.”
Members of Survivor Corps, the Facebook support group for
people who have had COVID-19, have also talked about experiencing hair loss
months after recovering from the virus. It’s due to a condition known as telogen effluvium, and it
can be caused by a slew of factors, including pregnancy, extreme stress, weight
loss, and illnesses other than COVID-19, Dr. Adalja says.
It’s unlikely that you
would just lose more hair than usual without having other COVID-19 symptoms,
like a cough or fever, Dr. Adalja says. It’s also important to note that hair
loss can happen from stress in general, he says – and there’s been a
lot of stress due to the pandemic. If you’re experiencing hair loss, it’s
possible it’s due to an unknown COVID infection, a build-up of stress during
uncertain times, or another underlying issue.
4. You feel breathless sometimes.
Research published in the journal JAMA has
found that people with COVID-19 can have after-effects of the virus,
including shortness of breath. It’s
not entirely clear why at this point or how long this can last, but it’s likely
due to lasting inflammation in the lungs.
'This is one of the
well-known lingering effects in people who were diagnosed with COVID-19,' Dr.
Schaffner says. 'If you have this, well, perhaps that illness you experienced
before was actually COVID.' If you’re experiencing shortness of breath, call
your GP for guidance or ask for a referral to a pulmonologist. They can often
prescribe medications and treatments, like an inhaler, that can help, Dr.
Schaffner says.
5. You have a cough that will not go away.
A lingering cough is
another symptom that people who participated in the JAMA study
reported. The cough is often dry, meaning that nothing comes up, like like
phlegm or mucus, Dr. Adalja says. This is fairly common: Data found that 43% of people who had
COVID-19 still had a cough 14 to 21 days after getting a positive test for the
virus.
6. You’re really, really tired.
This is one of the biggest
lingering effects after a person has COVID-19, according to the JAMA study.
That study found that 53% of patients said they were struggling with
fatigue around 60 days after they first showed signs of the
virus.
'We’re seeing some people
who had mild illness who have fatigue for some period of time,' Dr. Adalja
says. But, he says, it’s not entirely clear right now why this happens. It
could be the way a person’s immune system reacts to the virus,
or it could simply be the way the virus works in the body.
Keep in mind that fatigue
is a really common issue and can be a sign of many different health issues
(including, of course, not getting enough sleep). Like hair loss, people who
experience fatigue due to COVID-19 would have also had other symptoms of the
virus in the past, Dr. Adalja says.
7. You have unusual symptoms that seem to be
lasting forever.
Experts stress that
COVID-19 is still a new virus, so doctors and scientists are learning more
about it all the time. Research on lasting effects of the virus is ongoing, and
it’s difficult for doctors to say at this time that having certain symptoms
could mean you had a COVID-19 infection, while others don’t, Dr. Adalja says.
It’s worth mentioning that
some people have experienced heart issues after contracting the virus. One
small study of 100 people who recovered from COVID-19 that was published
in JAMA Cardiology did
MRIs on former patients and found that 78% had some kind of abnormal heart
finding, independent of any pre-existing conditions. This also didn’t seem to
be linked to severity of illness, the researchers found. That could show up in
a lot of different ways, including random heart palpitations, Dr. Schaffner
says, but it could also be unnoticeable.
Of course, there are plenty
of other complications that experts may not even know about yet. If you’ve been
feeling off and your symptoms are persistent, Dr. Schaffner says it’s a good
idea to get checked out by your doctor, whether you think it’s related to
COVID-19 or not.
What about an antibody test?
While an antibody test may
tell you if you have had COVID-19, they’re not exactly known for their
accuracy. 'Antibody tests are getting better, but there are a lot of antibody tests out
there that are still unreliable,' Dr. Schaffner says.
It's important to note that
antibody tests 'are not 100% accurate and some false positive results or false
negative results may occur.' So it’s possible to test positive for COVID-19
antibodies, but not actually have them.
This comes down to various
factors. First, there are other coronaviruses known to cause the common cold, and those can
get picked up by your antibody test, skewing the results. What’s more, if
you’re only in the first days of the infection, antibodies may not be detected
at all because your immune system has not built up a response yet.
Does possibly having COVID-19 in the past mean
you won’t get infected again?
While the above signs could
be an indication that you had COVID-19, they can also be caused by other
illnesses. 'Certainly a lingering cough and fatigue are well known to be a
consequence of influenza – just
because you have those doesn’t mean you had COVID-19,' Dr. Schaffner says.
Ultimately, short of having
a positive test for COVID-19 when you’re ill, it’s hard to know with total
certainty if you’ve had the virus. Still, 'there are definitely people who got
infected and didn’t notice,' Dr. Adalja says.
With all that in mind,
there is one important thing to remember: Even if you did have COVID-19 in the
past, that doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t get infected again. Official
advise at the moment states that it’s
unclear at this time if people can be re-infected with the virus – although
the first case of reinfection was
confirmed in Hong Kong.
So, even if you suspect you
contracted COVID-19 before the pandemic really hit, it’s important to continue
practicing prevention methods like wearing a mask, washing
your hands regularly, and practicing social distancing when you can, both to
protect yourself and others.
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