Stroke, diarrhoea new COVID-19 symptoms: AIIMS

A senior doctor at AIIMS said though most patients will exhibit flu-like symptoms, in some cases, instead of cold and fever, the virus resulted in neurological and gastronomical anomalies.

Moneycontrol News

May 07, 2020 / 15:06 IST

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has discovered newer symptoms associated with the deadly novel coronavirus disease, apart from existing ones such as respiratory disorders, fever, cold, etc. These include digestive disorders like diarrhoea and neurological problems, even strokes, which require immediate medical attention.

The doctors at AIIMS found that some COVID-19 patients also had infections in organs other than the respiratory tract, which were leading to gastrointestinal disorders and brain strokes, reported the Economic Times.

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Earlier, studies conducted in China and France also established the prevalence of neurological disorders in coronavirus patients while some even showed milder symptoms such as headache and dizziness. Among severe symptoms, loss of smell and/or taste, malaise, seizures, and hallucinations were reportedly found in COVID-19 patients. In China’s Hubei province, almost half of the coronavirus patients who were studied had digestive problems such as diarrhoea and anorexia.

A senior doctor at AIIMS said, though most patients would exhibit flu-like symptoms in some cases, instead of cold and fever, the virus resulted in neurological and gastronomical anomalies.

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.

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