Coronavirus India | Over-estimating fever as COVID-19 symptom affected India’s initial response, AIIMS study reveals

As per the AIIMS study, only 17% of people with COVID-19 infection had a fever. India had depended heavily on thermal scanning to regulate public access to commercial establishments in the initial days of the pandemic outbreak, which makes one question how many silent spreaders might have been let loose.

Moneycontrol News

July 25, 2020 / 16:16 IST

A study conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has revealed that fever might have been over-estimated as a symptom of the novel coronavirus disease. According to the study, fever has never been a predominant COVID-19 symptom.

The study published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR) of the Indian Council of Medical Research was conducted on 144 patients who were admitted to AIIMS Delhi between March 23 and April 15. It states that during that phase, only 17 percent of the COVID-19 patients were found to have a fever.

For live updates on coronavirus, click here

The research paper titled ‘Clinico-demographic profile and hospital outcomes of COVID-19 patients admitted at a tertiary care centre in north India’ was authored by AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria and 28 others.

The research paper read: “Fever was present in only 17 percent of our patients, which was far less compared to other reports across the globe, including the Chinese cohort in whom 44 percent had a fever at the time of presentation and 88 percent developed a fever during the hospital stay.”

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

Show