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What your doctor is reading on Medscape.com:
APRIL 12, 2020 — Asymptomatic or presymptomatic for COVID-19? Experts with the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) discussed the shift in thinking between the two terms at a media briefing Friday.
They also addressed racial disparities surrounding COVID-19, and announced new IDSA guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of the illness.
Regarding the shifting thinking on symptoms and transmission of the novel coronavirus, when it comes to presymptomatic or asymptomatic, “pre” is really the right terminology, Carlos del Rio, MD, professor of medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, said during the briefing, because it’s not that people are asymptomatic but that they develop symptoms later and start transmitting the virus 24 to 48 hours before they develop symptoms.
“Clearly, this plays a role in transmission,” with some studies suggesting that 6% to 12% of transmissions occur during this presymptomatic stage, he explained.
Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at University of Alabama at Birmingham, noted that early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the presymptomatic phase “could have been missed because we didn’t realize the wide ranging symptoms this disease has.”
This is turning out to be a “very interesting” virus with “fascinating” symptoms, she told reporters on the call.
The virus seems to have capacity to affect far more than just the respiratory tract. Initially, however, it was viewed “very much like a classic respiratory viral infection. As a result, a lot of people were refused testing because they were not showing the classic signs” of respiratory infection, Marrazzo noted.
It’s now clear that the range of symptoms is quite different, she said.
Notably, loss of smell seems to be “very characteristic and very specific to this infection. I can’t think of another common viral infection that causes loss of smell before you start to see other things,” Marrazzo said.
Data also suggest that gastrointestinal symptoms are common with COVID-19. Early data suggest that diarrhea probably occurs in about one third of patients. Some people have reported abdominal pain as the first sign, she said.
