Cold or Covid? Upper respiratory tract symptoms are on the rise, doctors say

Doctors are starting to notice cases of Covid-19 that look more like a very bad cold, especially in areas of the country where the highly contagious delta variant is spreading rapidly.

While shortness of breath and other lung problems remain among the most disturbing symptoms of Covid-19, it appears that upper respiratory tract complaints – marked by congestion, a runny nose and headaches – may increase. .

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“We’ve seen a number of people with cold-like symptoms,” said Dr. Robert Hopkins Jr., an internist at the University of Arkansas Medical Center in Little Rock.

The potential change in symptoms does not mean that the disease should be considered just a common cold. Respiratory droplets emitted by coughing and sneezing can infect other more vulnerable people. And cases that start out mild can get worse and get more severe.

“Covid can present itself in different ways,” said Dr. Russell Vinik, director of medical operations at the University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City. “If you think you have a cold, are contagious, and whether it’s Covid or a cold, you should consider getting tested.”

Vinik has also seen more people come in with cold-like symptoms. And previously typical symptoms of Covid-19 such as loss of taste and smell are no longer as commonly reported, he said.

Hopkins and Vinik both said their patients tended to be unvaccinated and younger than when the pandemic started.

It’s unclear why cold symptoms are increasingly being reported in Covid-19 cases, although some experts suspect this could be due to the delta variant, which now accounts for around 20% of new cases in the United States. United States, Arkansas and Utah, where Hopkins and Vinik are respectively based, have some of the highest delta case rates in the country, according to the Centers for Disaster Control and Prevention.

Indeed, in the United Kingdom, where delta is involved in more than 95% of new cases, researchers say that the most common symptoms of Covid-19 are now that of a bad cold: headache, sore throat. , runny nose and fever.

“What we’ve seen over the past month is really a change in symptoms,” said Tim Spector, professor of epidemiology at King’s College London.

Spector is leading a project called the ZOE Covid study, an app where users report symptoms, immunization status and other demographic information on a daily basis. Over 4 million people in the UK have signed up, along with around 300,000 people in the US

“We get a picture of where things are going in real time,” Spector said. “We also hear about the most common symptoms at different times of the year and in different places.”

Spector’s research reveals that previous symptoms, such as shortness of breath, persistent cough, and loss of smell, “came out of the top five” of the most common Covid-19 symptoms.

The CDC has long included the classic “cold” symptoms of congestion and runny nose on its list. potential symptoms of Covid-19. A spokesperson told NBC News the agency does not have an immediate plan to change the symptom indications.

Still, doctors in the US are paying attention to what’s going on in the UK, which is “two to three months ahead of us,” Vinik said.

Dunn agreed, adding that what is happening in the UK now could predict cases of Covid-19 later this summer and into the fall.

It is also possible that the change in symptoms of Covid-19 has nothing to do with the delta variant. Now that most older people have received the Covid-19 vaccine, new cases are heading to younger adults, most of whom are unvaccinated. Younger people have generally been spared the worst of Covid-19.

“Now that we have vaccinated all of these elderly people, you take their symptoms out of the mix,” said Alasdair Munro, senior clinical researcher in pediatric infectious diseases at the National Institute for Health Research in the UK.

“The people who would normally get these milder symptoms now represent a much larger proportion of all those infected,” Munro said.

Dr Andy Dunn, family physician and chief of staff at Wyoming Medical Center in Casper, estimates that three-quarters of his Covid-19 patients are now under the age of 50. He also sees an increase in congestion associated with the virus.

Most of Dunn’s sickest Covid-19 patients are unvaccinated. Wyoming is one of the states with the lowest vaccination rates in the country; a bit more 30 percent of residents are fully vaccinated.

Dunn said the combination of low vaccination rate and societal unmasking led to “huge breeding grounds for more variants to evolve and to really take over a community that could have wiped this out with vaccines.”

But even those who have been vaccinated are not fully immune to Covid-19. While very effective, vaccines do not prevent 100 percent of infections. Revolutionary cases – infections in fully vaccinated people – can occur.

“If you’ve been vaccinated and are showing symptoms, don’t ignore them. You could still catch Covid,” said Vinik, of the University of Utah Health.

This means that even among the vaccinated crowd, a stuffy nose, sore throat, mild fever, or fatigue may warrant a Covid-19 test.

“Is it just a cold? Or is it Covid? We don’t do enough testing to get a good idea of ​​how much Covid is circulating in our communities,” said Hopkins, from the University of Medical Center. Arkansas.

Spector, of the British ZOE project, had more pointed advice.

“If you’re not sure it’s a cold, I guess it could be Covid,” he said.

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