Mumbai: Reduced hearing, dry mouth, throbbing headache and conjunctivitis are some of the newer symptoms increasingly seen in Covid-19 patients. Members of the state Covid-19 taskforce urged physicians to suspect Covid even in cases where the hallmark signs of cough, sore throat, shortness of breath are absent.
Listing some of the evolving symptoms, Dr Rahul Pandit, a member of the Covid taskforce, said difficulty in hearing, conjunctivitis, extreme weakness, dry mouth and reduced saliva secretion, long lasting headache and skin rashes could be signs of Covid-19 too. “Although the disease has been around for 17 months, newer symptoms are still evolving and we need to watch them,” he said, speaking in an online conference chaired by CM Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday.
Globally, there are few documented cases of sensorineural hearing loss associated with Covid-19. An inflammation of the auditory nerve or a clot caused by the viral infection could affect hearing just like it affects the sense of smell, said Dr Samir Bhargava, head of ENT at RN Cooper Hospital. “But, we haven’t seen any exponential jump in case of sudden hearing loss though we are alert since viral infections are known to cause that,” he said, adding that such patients need treatment with steroids.
Dr Sanjay Oak, chairman of the taskforce, said during the second wave that was driven by the Delta variant, most presented only gastrointestinal symptoms, including diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting. Even fever can be present in varying forms, he said. Some do not get any fever, some get it in sudden bursts, some in intervals of two-three days, while in many it completely subsides only to return with severity. “The fever profile could be vastly varied,” he said.