Covid Symptoms
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A fever, cough or loss of smell and taste are criteria for a Covid-19 test, but what if you have different symptoms? James Gallagher discusses whether more symptoms should be added to the UK government's list with resident GP, Margaret McCartney and Dr Thomas Struyf of KU Leuven.
Cardiologist Dr Rohin Francis explains what symptoms he sees when patients with coronavirus arrive in hospital.
One of the most common symptoms of Covid-19 is the loss of the sense of smell. It returns after a few weeks in most people but a significant minority still can’t smell anything many months later. James Gallagher talks to Prof Carl Philpott of Norwich Medical School who has led an international panel of nose doctors, assessing the evidence for the best therapies to restore the olfactory sense to people who have lost it following respiratory infections. So-called smell training comes out top as the most evidence-based approach. Carl explains how it works and we hear from two people who are trying to regain their sense of smell.
And Dr Carly Welch from the British Geriatric Society says that delirium has emerged as another symptom of Covid-19, particularly in the elderly.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, |
| 0:05.4 | The Traitors Uncloaked. But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's |
| 0:10.6 | Saturday bonus episodes, the Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials |
| 0:16.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommas Shranger Nathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncloked. |
| 0:24.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.4 | Hello everyone, I'm James Gallagher, and I'm being a little bit naughty because I'm eating |
| 0:34.9 | inside the inside health studio. I've got soup, and it is a perfect soup for radio because it looks like pond water, but it smells divine. It's spiced lentil and spinach. I made it at home, brought it in, microwed it downstairs. And the reason I'm bringing that up is because we're going to spend the program talking about all the symptoms of COVID. Because I think we all think that we know what they are, but the reality is that we're going to spend the program talking about all the symptoms of COVID because I think we all think that we know what they are, |
| 0:57.6 | but the reality is there's loads of them, |
| 1:00.1 | and some doctors are arguing that we should be looking at even more symptoms |
| 1:03.7 | when trying to diagnose patients. |
| 1:06.1 | So while I polish off this soup, |
| 1:08.4 | why don't I leave you in the capable hands of our resident GP, Dr Margaret McCartney? |
| 1:13.0 | If you want to have a test from the government-run centres, you've got to pre-book and you have to tell them that you have one of three, the three classic big symptoms. |
| 1:20.8 | A high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or if you've lost your sense of smell or taste or it's changed, |
| 1:28.5 | that entitle you to get a government-run PCR throat swab test for COVID. So there's an issue. There are people in the |
| 1:33.6 | middle there who've got some symptoms, but they're not the big three, but they do have symptoms, |
| 1:37.8 | so they're not asymptomatic, and therefore they can't get a lateral flow test. So the issue is |
| 1:42.2 | what do those patients do? Do other countries use the same rules as we've picked? |
| 1:47.4 | It's quite clear that it is possible to have other symptoms of COVID, but they are not |
| 1:52.1 | one of those big three symptoms. And this is the problem. So if you look at the World Health |
| 1:56.6 | Organization website, they name things like aches and pains, headaches, I see that a lot, sore throats, |
| 2:02.8 | nasal congestion, nasal discharge, snuffliness, diarrhea, nausea, skin rashes, feeling of fatigue, it's |
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