No signs of Coronavirus? Here’s why you can still test positive

India's top medical research body, said that as much as 80% of all cases could be asymptomatic — infected people not showing any signs of illness. This raises the question- Why the symptoms of coronavirus are inconsistent?

Hyderabad: According to the National Health Service of England, the main symptoms of coronavirus are high fever or persistent cough, which are evident in most of the patients. However, in some cases, patients show no signs of illness.

Several papers published in recent weeks suggest that COVID-19 has many faces. It is completely different from influenza (flu) disease, which is another kind of respiratory disease. This makes this virus even more dangerous.

This also raises the question of why the symptoms of coronavirus are in variation. Influenza has been considered as a disease caused by different viruses, but the symptoms are always the same.

Around 80 per cent of people with coronavirus in India are asymptomatic or do not show symptoms of infection.

At the St. Joseph Mercy Health System in Michigan, Dr Anthony Dibinedet told the American Journal of Gastroenterology that he had a 71-year-old patient who was suffering from severe diarrhoea in March. His temperature was normal and there were no breathing issues. In the examination of faeces, no bacteria were found. But 9 days after becoming ill, the woman complained of phlegm, after which her corona test was done and she was found positive. Now, this is no more a unique case because even before complaining of breathlessness, corona patients are seeing symptoms ranging from heart attack to kidney infection.

Why is there such a difference in symptoms?

There is no clear reason for COVID-19 having many symptoms, but many theories are being pitched:

First Theory: According to the University of Iowa immunologist Stanley Pearlman, this is happening because it is a new disease and is dangerous, so it is being studied rapidly. If normal influenza were studied with the same intensity, different symptoms would have been seen eg: a mild stomach infection.

Second Theory: Virologist William James of Oxford University says that the corona starts in the upper respiratory system and then lies deep in the lungs. Since lungs also carry gas through the veins, in this way the virus reaches the other parts of the body as well.

Third Theory: A type of enzyme Ace 2 (ACE2) is found in many organs of the body. Ace 2 is also a cell-surface protein from which the coronavirus binds or clings. It is found in the lungs as well as in the stomach, kidney and heart. Therefore, the virus is also reaching these organs. Doctors are still researching to understand how this virus is able to survive even in stomach acid.