When two people presented at a Melbourne hospital with a headache recently, healthcare workers did not immediately think of testing for COVID-19. Headaches were not on their radar as a symptom of the deadly virus wreaking havoc across Victoria.
But as routine testing of the patients progressed, it soon became apparent that both patients did in fact have COVID-19.
Here at HelloCare, this story rang alarm bells.
If healthcare workers in hospitals are not able to detect COVID-19, who can? How did the virus get missed? Is there enough information out there about the signs of COVID-19? And is the information we have correct and complete?
For aged care workers, the issue, of course, is especially pertinent.
Aged care workers are on the front line of the battle against COVID-19 as they care for those most vulnerable to the virus.
Aged care workers must protect their own health so they can continue their important work. But they must also eliminate the chance they will pass on COVID-19 on to their vulnerable care recipients. It is crucial they are able to detect the symptoms of the virus as early as possible.
Associate Professor Julian Rait told the ABC’s RN ‘Breakfast’ program this morning of the dangers that can arise from confusing the symptoms of COVID-19.
“It’s quite curious because people have been presenting with headaches and vague symptoms that have turned out to be (COVID-19) positive,” he said. “We are still learning about the virus and all the different ways and means it can present.”
“It is very difficult because we have a bank of symptoms we usually look for to diagnose COVID-19, but we are discovering new ones every day.”
Melbourne emergency physician, Dr Stephen Parnis, told HelloCare that it is of “extreme importance” that aged care workers have the correct information about the symptoms of COVID-19.
Aged care workers are “at really high risk… of picking up or being infected by a patient,” he said.
Dr Parnis said the medical profession is still learning about the effects of COVID-19 on the body, and the uncertainty that creates can be perplexing. The last few months have been the most stressful in his 30-year career, he said.
“What we have seen over months now is that COVID-19 is not restricted to one body system,” he said.
“COVID-19 can affect the brain, it can affect the heart, it often does things by affecting the blood vessels.”
Dr Parnis said the information that it is available about COVID-19 is being distributed as quickly as possible, but the stress of the current circumstances can make it difficult for people to digest and retain the knowledge.
“Everyone in the community, from school children through to medical specialists, are faced with an enormous amount of information at the moment, and that imposes stress of itself,” he said.
“Some of that (information) is about the medical aspects of the virus, but on top of that there are all of these other things that crowd a person’s attention and make it difficult to retain knowledge.
“At the moment it’s very easy for people to be completely overwhelmed by what is happening. The only solution to that is to continue to present the information that they need in a repeated fashion and as simply as possible.”
Dr Parnis said the threshold for testing for COVID-19 is “becoming lower and lower”, and it is important to understand all signs of the illness.
“Some are obvious and most people would know about, things like a runny nose, a sore throat, an unexplained fever,” he said.
“But it can present in more subtle ways. Things like gastrointestinal symptoms, like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. It can present with fatigue. It can present with delirium. Things like confusion, bizarre behaviour, drowsiness. For older people who have complex medical problems… they can present in subtle ways.”
“There is no single comprehensive risk about the ways that COVID-19 can present.
“When you couple that with the fact that it’s highly infectious and that it is unpredictable in many ways… these are concerning and stressful things,” Dr Parnis said.
According to the Australian government’s Department of Health website, people with coronavirus may experience the following symptoms:
The World Health Organisation also lists the following symptoms:
The World Health Organisation lists the following “serious symptoms” of COVID-19 which require immediate medical attention:
It usually takes between five to six days from the time someone is infected with COVID-19 to the time they begin to show symptoms. However, it can take as long as 14 days for symptoms to appear.
COVID-19 can present as a mild illness, or can cause serious illnesses like pneumonia. Some people recover quickly and easily from COVID-19, while others may get very sick very quickly and take months to recover.
It’s also important to remember that people can be infectious before they begin to show any symptoms, hence the importance for Victorian aged care workers, in particular, wearing the appropriate PPE when they are with aged care residents.
If you develop even the mildest of the symptoms above, you should get tested immediately.
This article was updated after publishing to include a comment from Melbourne emergency physician, Dr Stephen Parnis.
HelloCare reached out to Associate Professor Julian Rait but at the time of publishing had not received a response.
Image: Light Field Studios, iStock.
