Covid symptoms: diarrhoea and vomiting may be key sign of coronavirus in children – study | Science | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/sep/03/diarrhoea-and-vomiting-may-be-key-sign-of-covid-in-children-study
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Diarrhoea and vomiting could be an important sign of Covid-19 in children, researchers say, leading to calls for the official NHS list of symptoms to be updated.
The checklist for coronavirus in children currently includes just three symptoms: a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, and a loss or change to the sense of smell or taste. The latter was added to the list in May.
A number of studies in adults have flagged symptoms including muscle pain, fatigue, confusion, chest pains and stomach trouble. Among them, a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study by researchers at King’s College London, based on data from the Covid symptom study app, found that symptoms fall into six main clusters in adults, one of them being mainly gastrointestinal problems.
Now researchers at Queen’s University Belfast say they have confirmed that an upset stomach is a symptom of Covid-19 in children, and revealed it appears to be a key sign of the disease.
“In our group, diarrhoea and vomiting were more predictive than, say, cough or even changes in smell and taste,” said Dr Tom Waterfield, the first author of the research. “If you want to actually diagnose infection in children, we need to start looking at diarrhoea and vomiting, not just upper respiratory tract symptoms.”