Omicron: what are these new symptoms of Covid-19?

Covid-19 disease was initially considered a disease of the lower respiratory tract, mainly affecting the lungs. More and more data are published and show that the SARS-CoV-2 is in fact able to affect many organs: the cardiovascular system or the brain. Scientists even speak of a systemic diseasethat is to say of a disease capable of affecting almost all the organs.

Moreover, the different variants do not necessarily have exactly the same characteristics. If the loss of taste or smell was common with the original strain of virusthis symptom is much less frequent with the variant Omicron, currently dominant variant. Recently, a new symptom was described with this variant, highlighting light its ability to affect an organ of the upper airways: the esophagus.

Odynophagia, pain in the esophagus

Odynophagia is a pain in the esophagus, felt during swallowing and disturbing it. This pain may be felt alone or accompanied by pain in the throat, hoarseness of the voice, and fever.

According to one swedish study appeared in the Journal of Internal Medicine, this symptom would particularly affect people who are infected but young, vaccinated and in good health. The study includes all patients positive for SARS-CoV-2 and who went through the emergency department of the nose, ear and throat from a Swedish hospital. Among the 20 patients included, fifteen had a complete vaccination schedule and four required a short hospital stay.

Epiglottitis, an infection caused by bacteria

Epiglottitis is an infection of the epiglottis, an anatomical structure located at the top of the larynx. It is always of bacterial origin and cannot be caused by a virus. Untreated, it can spread to surrounding tissues, block the passage ofair into the respiratory tract and cause the death of the patient. The symptoms are a severe sore throat, discomfort or even blockage when swallowing (dysphagia), fever, noisy breathing. Its treatment is based on takingantibiotics. Its diagnosis often requires a laryngoscopy to the flexible fiberscope. This is an examination to observe the back of the throat, the larynx and the vocal cords, using mirrors.

Some of the symptoms of epiglottitis are common with odynophagia. This is why, in the Swedish study cited above, the authors verified that each of the patients included did indeed suffer from odynophagia and not from epiglottitis. The authors also recommend performing this examination to exclude the diagnosis of epiglottitis, an infection that can be fatal without adequate treatment.