There are a few early warning signs of the coronavirus that you should be aware of. A coronavirus is a viral infection much like the common cold. It is not particularly dangerous unless you have a compromised immune system, and most people will get a coronavirus at some point in their lives. In addition, most people recover within a few days.
There have been a few cases in which specialized types of coronaviruses have caused deaths. That is the case with the Middle East respiratory syndrome otherwise known as MERS. However, most coronaviruses are not dangerous and will disappear with the same sort of treatment that you would give a cold. They may cause an infection in the nose, sinuses and upper throat. In the case of MERS, the infection may cause respiratory symptoms that can be rather serious. Let’s take a look at eight early warning signs.
1. Fatigue:
When you get sick, you feel tired. That’s just something that happens with everyone that has some sort of illness. That’s because your body is trying to fight the illness the same time as providing energy for you to do the things that you normally do. Unfortunately, this is usually not a successful strategy and your energy levels suffer as a result of the body attempting to heal itself.
The best time to heal the body is during sleep when you are able to reduce all bodily systems and activity down to minimal levels. This means that most of the energy that is being generated in the body is being used for healing whatever illness you happen to have. Until you have eradicated that illness, your energy levels may not rise up to their normal levels which means that you are going to feel tired almost the entire time that you have the illness.
2. General Feeling of Being Unwell:
Along with feeling tired, you may experience a general feeling of being sick. For example, you might describe this feeling as just feeling “blah.” Is difficult to put your finger on exactly what you are experiencing when you have this symptom, but it is a real symptom of being sick that is reported by millions of people who have an illness. Basically, your body is hinting to you that there is something wrong and that it needs to take action in order to heal itself.
Sometimes you can assist your body such as the case with antibiotics and sometimes you just have to let the illness run its course and allow your body’s immune system to do all the work. But if you experience a general feeling of being unwell, then you deftly want to pay attention to it because it could be something pointing to a coronavirus.
3. Fever:
Having a fever is a pretty common occurrence among those who are sick. Most people who have the flu get a fever at least once during their illness. Fever is definitely something that can make life inconvenient, the good news is that usually doesn’t last very long. The coronavirus can also cause fever in the early stages. The coronavirus is just like any other viral infection, so it works in much the same way that the cold or flu virus does.
Unfortunately, while you can get a vaccine to stave off the flu, you cannot always get a vaccine for the coronavirus. However, almost everyone that has the illness recovers and the fever is a big part of the reason why. When you have a fever, it is your body trying to heal itself. When you have a fever, the best thing you can do is get some rest and try to allow the fever to break on its own.
4. Coughing:
Coughing is an indication that your coronavirus is causing respiratory problems. There are two things to keep in mind about coughing. First of all, coughing can be a good thing because it expels the mucus from your body. When you cough, you want to get rid of that mucus by spitting it out into a nearby trashcan or handkerchief rather than allow it back down your throat.
This will help you get rid of the mucus faster and get relief from coughing. You may also want to use over-the-counter medications in order to break up the mucus and you can even try cough drops or a liquid cough suppressant to keep you from coughing too much – especially when you lay down. Coughing can certainly be annoying, but there is a reason that it happens with the coronavirus, and it usually only lasts for a few days.
5. Runny Nose:
A runny nose is a good indication that you have a cold or coronavirus. You get a runny nose because foreign objects get into the nasal passages and trigger the production of mucus in the nose. This may or may not be accompanied by sinus pressure and sinus cavities and feel clogged. You should always blow your nose with a fresh Kleenex that gets thrown away somewhere that it will have difficulty spreading through the air and infecting anyone else.
There are also many over-the-counter medications that will help you get your nose to stop running and even treat all the other symptoms that come from having a cold. But the best cure is simply to have a box of Kleenex around that you can go through until the illness is run its course and to make sure that you treat the symptoms as best you can.
6. Sore Throat:
Having a sore throat is a pretty common sign of sick, and it is one of the early signs of the coronavirus. A sore throat can be pretty debilitating because it can make it difficult for you to eat foods and even drink fluids. Unfortunately, drinking fluids is a big part of your recovery when you are sick either from a regular cold or the coronavirus.
There are ways you can soothe a sore throat with over-the-counter medication to reduce the pain, anti-inflammatory to reduce the swelling and cooling cough drops or cough medicine that coats the throw in a layer that makes it easier to eat and drink. Usually, a sore throat will only last for part of the time that you are sick, so you will not have to deal with this symptom for the entirety of your illness. Rest is also an important factor because your short throat can heal considerably while you are sleeping deeply.
7. Sinus Pressure:
You may also experience sinus pressure and clogged sinus passages. Both of these are extremely common when it comes to the coronavirus and for colds. Besides sore throat, this is probably the earliest warning sign out there. You may notice slight sinus pressure or a stuffy nose a couple of days before the rest of the symptoms actually arrive. Luckily, there are a few things that you can do about sinus pressure.
Sinus pressure is caused by the narrowing of your sinus cavities due to inflammation. When inflammation happens, these passages narrow so the air has a difficult time getting through. Therefore, an anti-inflammatory can go a long way towards relieving that stuffy nose. You can also break up the mucus in order to relieve pressure. Sinus pressure is a combination of inflamed sinus passages in the overproduction of mucus that gets stuck there.
8. Respiratory Symptoms:
In some cases, early warning signs of the coronavirus may include respiratory symptoms. However, these are fairly uncommon. In some cases, respiratory symptoms can mean that the coronavirus is more serious than the average infection. But that is only in rare cases. Even if you are having respiratory symptoms that are part of coronavirus infection, it is likely not caused by Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) or another more serious form of the disease.
It is likely just a variation on the regular symptoms that you will recover from quickly. Other respiratory symptoms can be a little more debilitating than other forms of the illness, and you want to be careful that it doesn’t lead to something like pneumonia, most people have respiratory symptoms as part of a coronavirus will still recover in a few days just like the normal infection.
9. Chills:
Infection with coronavirus often leads to the development of a fever. When the body detects the virus, it turns up the internal temperature to ward off the illness. Increasing the temperature setpoint induces a fever to stop the spread of the virus and reduce its lifecycle in the body.
Pyrogen proteins attach to nerve endings in the lower back, signaling the CNS to increase the basal temperature. However, it takes some time for the body to catch up to the new bassline level. As a result of this lag, the patient may start to experience the onset of chills – even though they are running a high fever.
The chills come in short bursts lasting anywhere between a few minutes to half an hour before fading away as the body reaches the current setpoint temperature. The intensity of the chills depends on the severity of the fever, but most people with coronavirus infection experience mild to high fever symptoms, but nothing life-threatening.
10. Delusional Behavior:
The fever symptoms associated with coronavirus infection are typically not high. However, in some cases, the strain responsible for the disease may carry a high viral load, intensifying symptoms in patients.
Should the patient experience a fever with temperatures exceeding 101F, they may start to develop delirium. The onset of this condition involves the patient being semi-conscious. They may begin to talk gibberish and give the impression to caregivers that they do not know where they are or what they are doing there.
The caregiver needs to keep the patient calm and relax while they wait for the fever to break. Supportive treatment strategies for this type of temperature include cold compresses to wipe away the sweat and keep the person cool.
Ensure the patient replaces any lost body fluids after breaking through the delirium. This symptom does not leave any lasting brain damage or neural issues, and most patients make a full recovery.
11. Dehydration:
After the fever breaks, it’s vital that the patient replaces any body fluids lost through sweating and the inability to drink water while being delirious. Dehydration is a severe complication of developing a fever and loss of body fluids.
Our body is more than 60-percent water, and when we deplete body fluids, we run the risk of developing numerous adverse health issues. Dehydration may lead to an imbalance in electrolytes, resulting in the development of seizures. If the patient does not receive treatment with IV fluids to restore their body fluids and electrolyte levels, they run the risk of falling into a coma.
Therefore, medical professionals recommend that the patient drink an electrolyte supplement to help them recover faster from the effects of dehydration. Being dehydrated slows down the immune system, increasing the duration of the infection. By replacing the body fluids quickly, it helps the immune system fight off the infection faster.
12. Pneumonia:
Pneumonia is one of the more severe complications of developing coronavirus infection. The upper respiratory issues associated with the condition, make the patient more prone to contracting the bacteria responsible for the formation of bronchitis and pneumonia.
Pneumonia is the more severe of the two regarding its impact on the respiratory system. Pneumonia occurs due to infection with the Streptococcus pneumonia bacteria. Since the immune system is already battling the effects of the coronavirus, the bacteria find it easy to colonize in the inflamed tissues of the upper respiratory system, where they eventually reach the lungs.
Once in the lungs, the bacteria multiply rapidly, resulting in further respiratory problems. If left untreated, the infection could spread to both lungs, resulting in a life-threatening situation. Patients who start to develop pneumonia will notice symptoms of wheezing, changes in the color and thickness of phlegm and mucus, as well as the development of a high fever.
13. Risk Factors:
There are 6-known strains of coronavirus, all of which can infect humans. The type of coronavirus is responsible for the infection that determines the variety and intensity of symptoms the patient experiences during infection.
Two new strains of coronavirus; MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, cause severe illness, with outbreaks in Asia of the SARS virus killing many patients. MERS-CoV is a medically resistant type of coronavirus that does not respond to antiviral treatments, resulting in the patient experiencing the worst of the symptoms, with no cure for the disease.
If you live or work in crowded environments, such as office cubicles or shared living quarters, then you are part of the high-risk group for contracting the disease. Other public activities like using the subway and bus systems place you at risk of contracting the virus from infected individuals.
Children attending nursery schools are also part of the high-risk category. When viruses enter a community, preschoolers are among the first to pick up the infection, transmitting it to their classmates who take it home to their parents, who then spread it among the community.
14. Treatment:
The type of coronavirus responsible for the majority of infections in the United States is typically the kind that produces mild symptoms. The medically-resistant strain and SARS virus seem to contain their spread within Asia at the moment.
However, like most other viruses, coronavirus does to have any cure, and patients will have to ride out the effects of the pathogen as it works its way through the system. Depending on the type of strain responsible for the infection, coronavirus infection can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, and most patients make a full recovery with no lasting effects of the disease.
Treatment for patients includes using “supportive care,” where the physician or caregiver treats symptoms as they arise to ensure the patient remains as comfortable as possible. Best rest and fluids are the best treatment for the condition. Currently, there is no vaccine for any form of coronavirus.
Prevent infection using the same strategies you would use to avoid contamination with the common cold. Wash your hands regularly, and avoid sharing food and beverages with others.
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