First of all: it indeed seems that if you become infected with the delta variant (formerly Indian variant), you will get different symptoms than with the alpha variant (former British variant).
Loss of smell is still in the top 5 of corona symptoms at RIVM, but from England – where the delta variant is now widely circulated – completely different signals are now coming. Loss of smell or taste doesn’t even make the top 10 there.
More on that later. What symptoms are there again? RIVM conducts research into this every few months. They have two groups complete a questionnaire: people who have antibodies against Covid-19 (also called the seropositives) and people who have no antibodies (the seronegatives). This way you get a clear picture.
Below you can see the differences between these groups:
–
–
Loss of flavor or taste
You see: people who have or had corona reported much more often that they had a headache or a runny nose and/or had to cough.
More striking is that more than half of the people noticed a loss of smell and/or taste – while this was hardly reported in people without corona. In that sense, loss of smell is the corona symptom: all alarm bells should ring if there is a loss of smell or taste.
We also see this list in other studies, sometimes in slightly different order. When asked about the symptoms among corona patients from 18 European hospitals last year, in 70 percent of cases called loss of smell, along with headaches the most frequently given answer.
‘Key symptom’
In this study, it was striking that the loss of the sense of smell mainly occurred in people who had a mild or moderate form of corona. Researchers called it a “key symptom.”
–
–
The reason we focus so much on that sense of smell is because in England this has been passed on as a symptom by patients much less recently. “Smell loss is no longer in the top 10,” says genetic epidemiology professor Tim Spector of King’s College London. The ‘key syndrome’ therefore seems to be disappearing. What are the complaints that are often mentioned?
Headache and sore throat
The scientist makes grateful use of an app that they use in England. Millions of Britons with corona voluntarily share their experiences in the Zoe app.
The reported experiences are now suddenly different. “It’s not the way it used to be,” Spector says, writing the Guardian. “Number one is now headache, then sore throat, runny nose and fever.” Coughing is still reported as a complaint, but less often than before.
Deltavariant
According to Spector, it seems that this has to do with the new variant that is going around in England. The delta variant, previously called the Indian variant, is responsible for 90 percent of the infections in England. It’s all tracked through so-called sequence research: among those who test positive, the genetic code of the virus is randomly examined. This happens both in England as in The Netherlands.
There are great concerns about the delta variant. This type spreads 50 percent faster than the alpha variant, also known as the British variant. Furthermore, people with one shot of, for example, Pfizer or AstraZeneca still too little protected. People who become infected with the delta variant would twice the chance have to end up in hospital.
–
–
And the concerns are now extra great because the complaints are suddenly different. These are symptoms that also occur with a common cold, so there is a danger that these symptoms are seen as harmless. “People may think they just have some sort of seasonal cold. They still go to parties…” says Professor Spector.
Delta variant in the Netherlands
The delta variant appears to be rare in the latest sequence research in the Netherlands. Of the 610 samples examined, 7 were attributable to the delta variant. Please note: this concerns data from the last week in May. The fear is that the variant is now widely circulated.
That could be the case in Nijmegen, for example. In one week, 205 young people between the ages of 15 and 19 were tested positive for the corona virus after a visit to Spain or Portugal, reports the Gelderlander. In the weeks before that, there were still a few cases.
The RIVM calls it ‘a reasonable chance’ that these young people are infected with the delta variant because there are also many British young people holidaying in those areas.
RIVM therefore calls on young people between the ages of 17 and 24, if they have been to Portugal or the Spanish islands, to take a precautionary test at the GGD after returning home, even if they have no complaints.
–
–
