Clinical Differences between COVID-19 and a COVID-Like Syndrome

Abstract

COVID-19 is an infection due to SARS-CoV-2; this virus has been identified as the cause of the present pandemic. Several typical characteristics are present in this infection, in particular pneumonia with possible lung failure, but atypical clinical presentations are being described daily by physicians around the world. Ground-glass opacities with pneumonia are the most common and dangerous presentations of the COVID-19 disease, and they are usually associated with positive nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) tests with detectable SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA. Compared to the general population, hospital workers have been at a greater risk of infection ever since the first patients were hospitalized. However, hospital workers have also been reported as having COVID-like symptoms despite repeated negative swab tests but having tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies with serological tests. We can postulate that a COVID-like syndrome is possible, in particular in hospital workers, that is characterized by symptoms similar to those of COVID-19, but with repeated negative nasopharyngeal swabs. These repeated negative NSPs make the difference in daily clinical management with people that experienced a single false negative nasopharyngeal swab; furthermore, a clear clinical differentiation of these situations is still lacking in the literature. For this reason, here, we report our main findings from a cohort of patients with a COVID-like syndrome compared to a similar group affected by typical COVID-19.

Immunity Profiling of COVID-19 Infection, Dynamic Variations of Lymphocyte Subsets, a Comparative Analysis on Four Different Groups

“…The long-covid and covid like patients reveal something that must be related to COVID19 since none of them has revealed to be affected by another disease. Current literature has also started showing similar conclusions, which explain the unique tropism of the SARS-CoV-virus's ability to run and hide in unthinkable locations without giving an evident sign of its presence [75][76][77]. Therefore, who may tell or deny that during the fall 2020 variants were already there?…”

Aptamers—Diagnostic and Therapeutic Solution in SARS-CoV-2

“…It has been proven that, in most cases, 5 to as many as 14 days must lapse from the moment of infection to the onset of infection symptoms. Originally, the SARS-CoV-2 infection was characterized by symptoms such as fever, dyspnea, dry cough, diarrhea, or temporary loss of the sense of smell and taste, and, in more severe cases, complications originating from a cytokine storm [17][18][19][20][21][22]. However, with the emergence of new variants of this virus in the population resulting from its natural predisposition to variability in the occurrence of other symptoms, e.g., sore throat in the case of the Alpha/Delta variant, are currently observed.…”

Editorial: Unusual Clinical Presentation of COVID-19

“…Therefore, if the clinical suspect of COVID-19 is also NPS negative, then the SARS research on other biological fluids or tissues such as bronchoalveolar lavage or urine has been suggested [ 4 ]. Furthermore, particularly for hospital workers, the chances of having COVID-19 or a COVID-like syndrome in the presence of suspected signs and symptoms when repeated NPS did not reveal the presence of SARS CoV2 has been underlined by Di Micco et al [ 5 ].…”