In an infographic, the government and Santé Publique France have listed the symptoms caused by Covid-19:fever, cough, fatigue, headache, sore throat, difficulty breathing and body aches.
But these would not be the only symptoms of the coronavirus. Taste and smell disorders complete this sad list. This is indeed what Michel Cymes explained on the set of C à vous Monday, March 16:"We can add one because some patients only had taste and smell disorders, a loss of smell. It happens with the flu too, the flu virus can shoot the olfactory nets that are between the two eyes. There are people who, after a flu, no longer had a sense of smell" .
Comments confirmed by several patients affected by Covid-19:“I did not have very explicit symptoms (…) It was closer to a flu-like state, with a slight loss of smell, a little loss of taste, a little irritated nose, aches and great fatigue" , said Jonathan Peterschmitt, general practitioner in Mulhouse in an interview with Euronews. Angelo Vavassori, an anesthetist-resuscitator in Bergamo, Italy, also reported these same symptoms.
To these symptoms could be added another, rarer one:conjunctivitis. This is reported by the American Academy of Ophthalmology in a press release. Indeed, the coronavirus could cause this inflammation of the eye, and be transmitted by aerosol contact with the conjunctiva – the membrane which covers the white of the eye – which in the latter case, can ignite. Of 30 patients hospitalized with Covid-19 in China, one person had developed conjunctivitis and had traces of the virus in their eye secretions, a study published in the Journal of Medical Virology found. .
But for the population, nothing indicates for the moment that it would be necessary to protect the eyes in addition to the nose and the mouth to avoid contamination. In the meantime, this reminder that should no longer be a reminder, we stay at home!
