The symptoms of Coronavirus infection are constantly evolving and increasing since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While the world is now trying to control the spread of the virus by launching mass vaccination programs, an unusual symptom has been causing concerns among the people and healthcare experts as it is becoming more common.
According to an epidemiologist at King's College London, Professor Tim Spector, many Coronavirus sufferers have been displaying "COVID tongue", a rare symptom that is not mentioned in the official Public Health England (PHE) list.
Prof Spector, the lead scientist on the Zoe coronavirus Symptom Study UK Infection Survey, said at least one in five COVID-19 patients are now displaying uncommon symptoms.
COVID Tongues
Prof Spector wrote on his Twitter handle, "Seeing increasing numbers of Covid tongues and strange mouth ulcers." He also posted an image of a person's tongue coated with white patches. He also advised people to stay at home if they develop strange symptoms or "even just headache and fatigue".
Throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, there have been repeated calls to update the respective list of possible warning signs for the UK health bodies. The list on NHS website, includes only three major symptoms like high temperature, continuous cough and loss or change to the sense of smell and taste. But in comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US has listed 11 possible warning signs of COVID-19. These are-
Even the World Health Organization (WHO) has acknowledged many less-common symptoms of COVID-19 including aches and pains and discoloration of fingers or toes.
Prof Spector last year criticized PHE for not updating the list of symptoms. He told BBC in May 2020 that 1.5 million Britons were logging onto the Covid symptom study app and tracking a wide range of symptoms, as well as changes. "It tells us that we've got at least 100,000 cases at the moment of people who are infected. And this is from our data, although the NHS would underestimate that because they're not counting all the symptoms," he added.
According to him, there are 14 symptoms about which the researchers came to know but these haven't yet been picked up by the NHS.
However, since the COVID tongue is becoming a more common coronavirus symptom, people are advised to get a proper diagnosis and medical checkup to make sure whether these thick patches on the tongue are caused by Coronavirus infection.
