Gastrointestinal symptoms predominate for younger COVID-19 patients
Thank you Kapil Khambholja for arranging the chat with Dr Maniar, hospital physician on the front line for the second wave in India. It was a great discussion regarding therapeutic strategies, dependent on patient presentation.
Here are some of the points from that discussion:
Older people have mostly been vaccinated in India during their first vaccine roll out and the numbers are much less with milder disease. Younger unvaccinated people with undiagnosed comorbidities seem to make a large proportion of admissions but not necessarily progressing to need intensive care support.
Gastrointestinal symptoms seem to occur frequently, characterised by abdominal pain, loose stools and fever. This was a pattern also noted in South Africa by Dr Shankara Chetty during their second wave.
Prior research into infected macaques demonstrated viral spread to the gastrointestinal tract within 48 hours. Based on the immune mechanism, it could indicate mast cell activation in the small intestine causing those symptoms.
So much more to learn.