(CNN) — Covid-19 can cause a wide variety of symptoms, but a new record review by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that most Patients seemed to share at least one of these three symptoms: fever, cough, and shortness of breath.
The analysis, published Thursday in the CDC’s Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report, covered 164 people with laboratory-confirmed cases of covid-19. All patients had symptoms and all were ill between January 14 and April 4.
Since covid-19 was a new disease and limited information on symptoms, especially among patients who had not been hospitalized, the CDC sent more surveys to patients identified by local health leaders. Patients were asked to report a wide variety of symptoms and also any additional symptoms that were not widely recognized.
Among these patients, almost all, 96%, had had fever, cough, or shortness of breath, and about 45% experienced all three.
Cough was the most common symptom: 84% of patients surveyed said they had a cough, according to findings from the CDC team and state health officials. Fever was the next most common symptom, as 80% of patients reported having it. Shortness of breath was most commonly associated with people who were hospitalized.
Patients also experienced a wide variety of other symptoms, including muscle pain, chills, fatigue, and headache. At least one stomach problem, most commonly diarrhea, was reported by half of the patients. Some patients also reported gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting.
A higher percentage of people who did not have to go to the hospital lost their sense of taste or smell.
These results are not generalizable, as testing was restricted to certain patients during this time period and hospitalized patients are likely overrepresented in the sample of respondents, but the data gives doctors a better idea of who might need a test. or even be isolated to stop the spread of the covid-19 pandemic.
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