WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading at an alarming rate, and as of this writing, the number of confirmed cases globally is 936,170 while the death toll is 47,249.
The usual symptoms displayed by people affected by SARS-CoV-2, nearly 2 to 14 days after exposure to the virus, include fever, sore throat, cough and shortness of breath.
But a new study performed at Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College (Wuhan, China) has found that some COVID-19 patients with mild disease severity initially experience only digestive symptoms mainly diarrhea. The usual respiratory symptoms like cough, shortness of breath and fever may crop up later or may never manifest in these patients.
According to the authors of the study, 'Failure to recognize these patients early and often may lead to unwitting spread of the disease among outpatients with mild illness who remain undiagnosed and unaware of their potential to infect others'.
The study was published in pre-print on March 30, 2020, by The American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Currently, there are no drugs to treat COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. A number of companies are working to find a treatment or vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
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Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX