If you have had diarrhea for a few days, it may be… Covid-19. Yes, you may have missed this, but this intestinal disturbance is also one of the symptoms of coronavirus. And the new JN.1 variant, now in the majority, is a reminder of this.
“We have observed since the first variants that the coronavirus causes diarrhea,” recalls Antoine Flahault, epidemiologist and professor at the faculty of medicine at the University of Geneva. This symptom seems more common with the new variant but it is not new. »
A risk of dehydration
Don’t panic: “this will not lead to more serious forms” of Covid-19, however, assures the epidemiologist. We know this because the number of hospitalizations remains very low with JN.1. A new variant which is also “in a period of epidemic decline”, according to the doctor.
Few risks therefore… except for certain categories of the population. Diarrhea can cause dehydration in infants, the elderly or very fragile people but also “discomfort and consequences which can go as far as kidney failure”, according to Benjamin Davido, infectious disease doctor and medical director responsible for Covid-19. at the Raymond Poincaré Hospital in Garches.
A risk of decompensation
Diarrhea can also destabilize their health. “Sometimes, elderly people do not die from Covid-19 infection or respiratory failure, but from decompensation of their pre-existing illness due to the imbalance of a precarious state of health,” explains Antoine Flahault. Medications taken for a chronic illness, for example, may be difficult to assimilate in cases of diarrhea.
“In this type of case, we very often see elderly people who fall at home, digest poorly, are woozy and end up in the hospital without this caricature of a sign of respiratory exhaustion,” adds Benjamin Davido. Conversely, they can also be initiating signs of the disease, before respiratory failure. »
A risk of delayed diagnosis… and hospital congestion
According to him, emergency doctors and infectious disease doctors are perfectly aware of these cases which can easily be confused with legionella infections or gastroenteritis. But this would not be the case for other professionals. “With all the respect I have for my colleagues, if we are faced with an elderly patient who, in a medical desert, calls his doctor to come to his home and tells him that he has diarrhea, the doctor will not think of Covid-19, estimates the infectious disease specialist. Especially in winter with epidemics of gastroenteritis. »
However, the diagnosis is important. If it is not applied in time, it may prevent you from taking appropriate medication. “We now have effective treatments,” emphasizes the doctor. The earlier we make the diagnosis and the earlier we start treatment, the lower the risk of ending up in hospital. » Because even in the absence of respiratory failure, elderly people with almost exclusively gastroenterological forms of Covid-19 can end up in the emergency room. And come to “crowd” the hospitals. In times of triple epidemic, flu, Covid and bronchiolitis, it is better to try to escape it.