COVID-19 new variants: Yet, unseen symptoms may emerge, expert warns
A public health physician, Dr Tomi Owopetu-Iken, has advised Nigerians to strictly observe the COVID-19 protocols as more highly transmissible variants emerged.
Owopetu-Iken, A member of the Oyo State COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center (EOC), gave the advice in an interview in Ibadan.
The public health physician said that people may be infected with COVID-19 and have not seen the symptoms of the virus.
According to her, doctors and scientists are learning new things about the virus which initially had cold-like symptoms.
“Because COVID-19 is a novel disease, we are going to keep seeing people presented with different symptoms as not everybody is going to have loss of smell or taste.
“Some people are going to have symptoms that will mimic malaria and it is possible for others to present other different symptoms.
“As we continue to understand the disease, we will continue to see more people presented with unexpected symptoms,” she said.
The physician also warned that while healthcare workers should keep a high index of suspicion for COVID-19, it is important not to misdiagnose other diseases like malaria.
According to her, this can lead to delays in appropriate treatment and progress to a more severe illness.
“In reference to what is being said about the possibility of missing COVID-19 due to it being mistaken for malaria, it is to increase our index of suspicion.
“The symptoms of malaria overlap with COVID-19 and it may be malaria or not; it is also possible to have malaria and COVID-19 at the same time.
“However, not everyone that is ill has COVID-19, so we need to tread with caution.
“If we are ill and not feeling too fine, and think we may have been exposed, then the thing to do is to get tested.
“Even if we don’t have a loss of taste or smell; this will help to protect ourselves and the people around us,” she said.
The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Monday revealed that the highly contagious UK coronavirus variant had been identified in the country even as the country battles with a second infection surge.
As of time of this report, Nigeria has confirmed 122,996 COVID-19 infections with 1,507 deaths.
