There may be another addition to the growing list of strange possible symptoms of the new coronavirus: ‘Covid tongue’.
A British researcher helping to detect Covid-19 warning signs reports more cases of infected people complaining of tongue discoloration, enlargement and other mouth problems.
‘See an increasing number of Covid tongues and strange mouth sores. If you have a strange symptom or even just have headaches and fatigue, stay home! ‘Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, tweeted this month.
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He believes that more than a third of COVID-19 patients, 35 percent, have non-classic symptoms of the disease in the first three days, so it is important to pay attention to skin rashes, Covid toes and other warning signs which is ‘ignored,’ he wrote.
According to Spector, less than 1 in every 500 patients has ‘COVID tongue’. The main symptoms he hears about are a “variegated covering” of the tongue that may be white or yellow and cannot be brushed away, and a scalloped tongue. The condition can be painful.
“It’s a good reminder that there are so many different manifestations of this virus, rather than just the classic ones,” said Spector, lead researcher on the ZOE COVID symptom study, which enables people to report symptoms via an app. , told NBC News.
“The whole question of why we have this great variety of symptoms of the virus is still unknown.”
Until there is more information, it is too early to add ‘COVID tongue’ to any official list of symptoms, but dentists, oral surgeons and other doctors who look inside people’s mouths should know that it is one of the earlier may be signs of infection.
Other researchers have also reported tongue and mouth symptoms associated with the new coronavirus.
When doctors studied 666 patients with Covid – 19 in Spain, more than a tenth of them – 78 – showed ‘oral cavity findings’, according to a study published in the British Journal of Dermatology.
Of the group, 11 percent had inflammation of the small bumps on the surface of the tongue; 6 percent had a swollen and inflamed tongue with notches on the side; 6 percent have mouth ulcers; 4 percent had ‘lapless’ areas on the tongue; and 4 percent had tissue swelling in the mouth.
The oral cavity “deserves specific examination under appropriate conditions to avoid risk of infection,” the authors wrote.
Tongue or mouth problems – other than sore throat – do not appear on the list of Covid-19 symptoms compiled by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, although the agency acknowledges that it is still learning more about the new coronavirus, so the page does not t includes all possible warning signs.
After all, the loss of smell and taste initially seems to be a strange symptom, but is now considered one of the most common manifestations and is part of the list.
Other yet to be confirmed situations include ‘fizzing’ or a tingling sensation reported by some Covid-19 patients. Will ‘Covid tongue’ be placed in a similar category?
“It’s consistent with all the things about Covid,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. , we opened our medical textbooks for Covid and there were only blank pages. ”
Schaffner did not see cases of ‘Covid tongue’, but he did hear it discussed. It may not be that the mouth is vulnerable to the new coronavirus, but that Covid-19 can develop an immune condition so that other viruses such as herpes labialis – the herpes virus above the waist, or herpes simplex virus type 1, which causes’ an infection in the lips, mouth or gums – may activate, Schaffner said.
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Researchers have yet to determine if any mouth and tongue problems are indeed related to Covid-19, he added.
“People respond differently to different diseases,” said Dr. Waleed Javaid, director of infection prevention and control at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York, said.
But at the moment he will not consider ‘Covid tongue’ as a diagnostic tool for the disease, just because it appears to occur in a very small proportion of people, he noted.
The American Dental Association said it has been monitoring the development of oral and oral problems experienced by COVID-19 patients since early in the pandemic. The study, published in the British Journal of Dermatology, is consistent with what ADA researchers have heard from colleagues and partners.
“Oral health is an important and vital part of overall health, and the ADA continues to investigate the relationship between the two regarding COVID-19,” the association said in a statement.
The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery could not immediately comment on whether cases of oral and tongue problems were reported by COVID-19 patients.
