The Roles of Nausea and Vomiting in COVID-19
As you know that the pandemic of COVID-19 has not only ceased the economic engine of the world but has also brought mortality and morbidity on a global scale.
Since the inception of this chronic respiratory syndrome in December 2019, it has been threatening human life on the planet earth.
According to an estimate by September 2020, this deadly virus has taken 876,616-above human lives and about 25M-above people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus worldwide.
Nausea and COVID
Nausea and COVID have a strong association because COVID-19 is a health emergency for the public across the globe. The medical manifestation of coronavirus is dominated by respiratory symptoms. However, gastrointestinal symptoms are also observed in people captured by the coronavirus.
Notably, nausea or vomiting has been found in some patients as the coronavirus initial clinical manifestation. Unfortunately, this symptom is mostly overlooked by infected people.
Nausea as The Uncommon Symptom Among Patients of COVID-19
Various research works have proven that vomiting and nausea are common symptoms in this ailment.
A study was conducted by incorporating 1141 patients of COVID-19 hospitalized in Wuhan, China to investigate gastrointestinal manifestations. The research revealed that out of those patients about 134 patients had nausea and 119 had vomiting. It was amongst the earliest research work conducted to examine gastrointestinal manifestations.
Similarly, another study was conducted in one of the multicenter units in the USA involving 318 patients diagnosed with COVID-19. This study also found that nausea has appeared in 26.4% of these patients whereas 15.4% of patients suffered from vomiting.
According to the AGA’s (American gastroenterological association) meta-analysis and latest review, the joint occurrence of vomiting/nausea amongst COVID-19 patients was 7.8%. Moreover, another meta-analysis and systematic review have also observed the same outcomes. It showed that the rate of occurrence of vomiting among patients was 50% and for vomiting, it was 7%.
The joint prevalence of vomiting and nausea ratio is found to be greater in other countries (14.9%) when compared with that of China where the ratio was only 5.2%.
The Variation in Occurrence of Nausea
A variation in the occurrence of vomiting and nausea is broadly observed in different localities. This variation has indicated the diverse vulnerability of the digestive system of people around the world.
Of note, the majority of the research work was retroactive which means that there can be a probability of memory bias.
Further, many researches have omitted the outpatients and only included the inpatients with milder symptoms. Consequently, the actual occurrence of vomiting and nausea in patients of COVID-19 cannot be estimated.
Pediatric Patients and COVID
When it comes to children, researches have shown that amongst most children affected by COVID-19, vomiting and nausea are reportedly found in a good proportion. Both symptoms were detected in a unit bearing 171 children infected from coronavirus. Where nausea was observed in 9 children whereas vomiting was found in 11 children.
According to the analysis conducted by CDC (US centers for disease control and prevention), vomiting was observed in 11% of young patients when undertaken 291 patients of coronavirus.
In another systematic review, 7.2% occurrence of vomiting is observed in children when studied 62 research analysis. Interestingly, this ratio was equivalent to the ratio of adult patients.
Children were found to less indicative than adult patients of coronavirus, therefore vomiting could have occurred as a warning sign of this infection.
Further, as per a report article addressing five coronavirus cases of children, out of five children infected by coronavirus three children had demonstrated vomiting and nausea symptoms before admitted to the hospital. Surprisingly, five of these children had not shown any of the respiratory symptoms commonly observed in COVID-19 patients.
EndNote
After going through these pieces of evidence you can say that vomiting and nausea can be the early symptoms of coronavirus. It can be worth saying that nausea and COVID have a strong association.
Now, researches have made it clear that coronavirus may not only attack your lungs but can also harm your gastrointestinal tract. This virus affects the mechanism of your enzymes and thus open the gateway to series of infections in your gastrointestinal epithelial tissues. Ultimately, the situation may result in developing vomiting and nausea.
These evidence-based outcomes have shown that COVID-19 can have atypical symptoms. Meanwhile, vomiting and nausea are the symptoms of coronavirus that you should not overlook in any circumstances.
Particularly, if you are residing in areas at high-risk of COVID-19, working in offices, studying at an educational institute, running shop, or else. In short, if you have substantial exposure to the public never overlook vomiting and nausea.
Being a responsible and civilized citizen, it should be your responsibility to raise awareness about vomiting and nausea as the legit symptoms of coronavirus. Let’s combat the COVID-19 pandemic together because it is the problem for the whole world. And spreading awareness is our responsibility.