"Gastric" Coronavirus

[vera99]

I'm suspecting this is relatively rare but amplified because of the articulacy of the twitter account of one sufferer. Sounds terrible.

Hello, I’ve not been here because I am on day 33 of #Covid 19, and for the last 26 I’ve been the sickest I’ve ever been in my life. I feel really lucky not to have had any respiratory symptoms, mine have been purely gastric, but even with mild to moderate symptoms, it’s horrible.

twitter.com/FernRiddell

www.lbc.co.uk/hot-topics/coronavirus/gastric-what-is-it-symptoms-norovirus/

www.thesun.co.uk/news/11450615/gastro-coronavirus-symptoms/

www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/had-gastric-coronavirus-weeks-no-one-talking-version-virus/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter

[Northernsoullover]

I'm confused. I have had a good look through her Twitter and I can't see that she was tested. Only that they wouldn't test her stool sample?

[Northernsoullover]

Can't read the article either

[vera99]

All the press articles and they seem to be many now all seem to point back to her. Could it be she has something else ?

[vera99]

It has the feel that there is something else around and afflicted folk may be bundling it in under coronavirus. The Telegraph should be more responsible for publishing unsubstantiated stories.

www.entertainmentdaily.co.uk/news/coronation-street-simon-gregson-coronavirus/

[Northernsoullover]

She is saying she is on day 33 of gastric Covid but I can't see where (or if) she has had a positive test? Something like Giardia would cause similar symptoms so I can understand the frustration of not being able to get any different testing

[Northernsoullover]

Again Simon Gregson no test. I think it is understood that some confirmed cases have suffered with gastric upset but you are right these stories should not be published when so many are untested.

[Porcupineinwaiting]

There was one study of COVID patients in China I noted which recorded 1 patient with gastric-only symptoms, so it can happen. V rare though, from what I recall from that study 50% or so had gastric plus other symptoms and 50% no gastric symptoms at all.

[HDDD]

I thought Coronavirus was a respiratory disease.

[vera99]

One articulate twitter influencer, a hungry media and you have a perfect storm of disinformation and half-truths.

[User0987613]

Yes this exists! DH had to be tested because he was in contact with a quarantined person who had contact with a confirmed Covid case that only presented itself through gastric symptoms (we don't live in the UK so "second degree contact" testing is allowed under special circumstances). The patient was hospitalised with suspicion of food poisoning and had no typical signs of CV.

The hospital said about 1-5% of CV cases only show through gastric symptoms. Most symptoms aren't actually "caused" by the virus but by the body trying to get rid of it. Since most people inhale the particles, the respiratory tract is affected. In some cases, the main virus load ends up in the digestive system and it results in gastric issues. And of course there's often a mix of both.

[Porcupineinwaiting]

@HDDD it is primarily and transmits from throat to throat as it were (hence lots of sufferers getting the cough). From the throat the virus can then spread downwards to the lungs and often down to the digestive tract, hence vomiting and diarrhoea.

[TJH130]

Does this mean the idiots that were buying bog rolls by the ton weren't as stupid as we thought?!

[vera99]

@TJH130

[JKScot4]

If she’s not been tested then she has personally decided this is her diagnosis.
Attention seeking methinks.

[ofwarren]

My GP said they were hearing from people who have gastric issues. I assumed he meant alongside the usual issues though.
I wasn't tested but my GP thought it was covid and I had horrendous acid reflux. I still have it now, 4 weeks later. I can't sleep lying down and no medicine seems to shift it.

[CandyLeBonBon]

That's bizarre because a week before lockdown me and 2 of my 3 kids had cough, sore throat, headache mildly raised temp 37.6 and I had awful reflux/nausea/heartburn type symptom. Didn't think it was covid but maybe it was?

[ComtesseDeSpair]

Without a test why has she concluded Corona rather than the more likely flu or other seasonal virus?

Also isn’t it more complicated than some Corona cases having gastric symptoms, in the sense that significant proportions of people who have actually been tested have been found to be asymptomatic? Meaning that some people may have both asymptomatic Corona and something else entirely which gives them gastric illness, and are only symptomatic of the latter? I’d imagine that was more likely than a tiny percentage of Corona cases having entirely different symptoms to the majority.

[vera99]

@ComtesseDeSpair I don't doubt she believes it - but as an author and writer, corona sells at the moment. I had the flu and survived doesn't.

[apricotdreams]

My mum who is 86 has had covid. She hasn't been tested but gp is sure that it was the virus. She had flu like symptoms for about two weeks. She is now over those symptoms but now has awful gastric heartburn and reflux. She has been told that that they are finding that can be part of the virus. It's amazing that she fought it off as she has high blood pressure and a heart condition.

[Thisdressneedspockets]

She can't be tested for coronavirus and she can't be tested to rule out anything else. If I had been as poorly as her and it was ongoing, I'd be scared and frustrated too.

It's people like her 'attention seeking' who will help to bring about change.

[Porcupineinwaiting]

@Thisdressneedsspockets well said.

People always use "well you haven't been tested" as such a gotcha. Maybe we should ask why so many clearly very ill people are not being tested - for COVID or for anything else but instead are being left to struggle on at home for weeks.