Headache and fatigue are more indicative of Covid disease than the common cold

More than 1,200 of them subsequently received a positive Corona test, and the researchers looked at the relationship between the symptoms recorded and the positive test results.

Known symptoms such as loss of smell and taste, cough, shortness of breath, and fever were less common than fatigue and headache. The only problem: fatigue and headache are also common in people who are not found to have the virus.

Headache and fatigue are not a sign to go on the Test Street in the Netherlands. If they were included in the list of complaints, according to researchers, we would theoretically discover 92 percent of all coronavirus cases. Without it, we get to 69 percent.

But that has a price: For every infection discovered, twice as many people come to Test Street for nothing, according to the study published this week. In the Journal of Infection.

Difficult balance

“If you’re going to check the nurses for fatigue now in the hospital, they’ll have to test almost everyone,” says Jan Clwittmans, OMT member and microbiologist at Bredase Amvina Hospital. “I think 95 percent of people are more tired than usual at the moment.” This, he adds, makes it difficult to assess fatigue as a complaint.

Muscle pain, according to Clwittmans, is a lesser-known complaint and a symptom among his hospital staff. This also applies to extreme tiredness or general malaise.

It’s a very difficult balance, ”says Clwittmans. If we test more, we will find more infections. But how many people added that you need to test? Kluytmans also indicates test readiness, which he believes is already low in the Netherlands. People often say they do not undergo the test because they have mild complaints. Would people with fatigue or headaches go to the test street? And if they came five times for nothing, would they go the sixth time? ”

According to Kluytmans, it is especially important that anyone who wants can easily test themselves. “If you don’t have a headache, now all of a sudden, you can take the test. When in doubt: test.”

Surprisingly, a cold is not a good indicator at all, he says One of the researchers behind the new study at De Volkskrant. The WHO also no longer mentioned a cold in it List the most characteristic symptoms.

A spokesperson for RIVM stated that studies on symptoms are being viewed by RIVM staff and sent regularly to OMT. That will soon happen, too, with this research. This sometimes modifies the test instructions.

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