what to take for nausea and stomach pain
Media reports before this calendar week described a Queensland nurse with breadbasket pains who went on to test positive for COVID-19.
Could tummy pains be another symptom of COVID-19? And if you have breadbasket pains, should you get tested?
Although nosotros might call back of COVID-nineteen as a respiratory disease, we know it involves the gut. In fact SARS-CoV-two, the virus that causes COVID-19, enters our cells past latching onto protein receptors called ACE2. And the greatest numbers of ACE2 receptors are in the cells that line the gut.
COVID-19 patients with gut symptoms are also more likely to develop severe disease. That'due south partly because even after the virus has been cleared from the respiratory organization, information technology can persist in the gut of some patients for several days. That leads to a high level of virus and longer-lasting illness.
We also suspect the virus can exist transmitted via the fecal-oral route. In other words, the virus can be shed in someone's poo, and then transmitted to someone else if they handle information technology and touch their mouth.
What type of gut symptoms are nosotros talking nigh?
A review of more than 25,000 COVID-19 patients plant about 18% had gastrointestinal symptoms. The virtually common was diarrhea followed by nausea and airsickness. Intestinal hurting was considered rare. In another report only about 2% of COVID-19 patients had intestinal pain.
Some people believe COVID-19 causes abdominal pain through inflammation of the nerves of the gut. This is a similar way to how gastroenteritis (gastro) causes abdominal hurting.
Another explanation for the pain is that COVID-19 can lead to a sudden loss of blood supply to abdominal organs, such as the kidneys, resulting in tissue death (infarction).
Are gut symptoms recognized?
The U.s. Centers for Affliction Command has added diarrhea, nausea and airsickness to its list of recognized COVID-19 symptoms.
Yet, the World Health Organization nevertheless only lists diarrhea as a gastrointestinal COVID-19 symptom.
In Australia, nausea, diarrhea and airsickness are listed as other COVID-19 symptoms, alongside the classic ones (which include fever, cough, sore throat and shortness of breath). Just abdominal pain is not listed.
Advice of symptoms that warrant testing may vary beyond different states and territories.
How probable is information technology?
Doctors often use the concept of pre-test probability when working out if someone has a particular illness. This is the adventure a person has the disease before we know the test result.
What makes it hard to decide the pre-exam probability for COVID-xix is we don't know how many people in the community truly have the disease.
Nosotros do know, however, COVID-19 in Australia is much less common than in many other countries. This affects the way we view symptoms that aren't typically associated with COVID-19.
It's far more common for people's abdominal pain to be caused past something other than COVID-xix. For example, most a quarter of people at some point in their lives are known to suffer from dyspepsia (discomfort or pain in the upper abdomen). Just the vast majority of people with dyspepsia exercise not accept COVID-19.
Similarly, irritable bowl syndrome affects virtually nine% of Australians, and causes diarrhea. Again, the vast majority of people with irritable bowel syndrome exercise not have COVID-xix.
So how about this latest case?
In the Queensland case, nosotros know the nurse was worried he could have had COVID-19 because he was in close contact with COVID-19 patients.
As he seemed otherwise healthy before developing new intestinal symptoms, and considering he worked on a COVID ward, his pre-test probability was loftier. Doctors phone call this a "high index of suspicion" when at that place is a strong possibility someone may have symptoms due to a disease such as COVID-19.
What does this mean for me?
If you have new gastrointestinal symptoms and y'all've potentially been in contact with someone with COVID-19 or if you also accept other classic COVID-19 symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath and sore pharynx) you should definitely become tested.
If you accept only gastrointestinal symptoms, you may demand to go tested if you're in a "hotspot" surface area, or work in a high-risk occupation or industry.
If y'all have gastrointestinal symptoms alone, without any of these additional risk factors, in that location is no strong testify to support testing.
Notwithstanding, if COVID-19 becomes even more common in the community, these symptoms now regarded as uncommon for COVID-xix will become more mutual.
If you have concerns nearly any gastrointestinal symptoms, seeing your GP would be sensible. Your GP volition provide a balanced assessment based on your medical history and risk contour.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original commodity.
Citation: Diarrhea, stomach ache and nausea: The many means COVID-19 can bear on your gut (2020, September 2) retrieved 8 April 2022 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-diarrhea-stomach-ache-nausea-ways.html
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