The UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently conducted a study on patients with the UK variant of the virus, which showed that patients more often have symptoms such as cough, fatigue, sore throat and muscle aches, and less loss of taste and smell.
The NHS currently identifies the three main symptoms of Wuhan pneumonia as high fever, persistent cough and altered sense of taste or smell, with most diagnosed patients experiencing at least one of these symptoms, according to a comprehensive foreign media report. The NHS, together with the Department of Public health, the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester, recently conducted a joint survey of 6,000 confirmed patients in the UK and found that fewer patients infected with the UK variant of the virus had typical symptoms such as loss of taste and smell.
According to the survey, of the 3,500 respondents diagnosed with the Variant virus, 35 percent had a cough, 32 percent felt tired, 25 percent had muscle aches and 21.8 percent had a sore throat, a higher proportion of these symptoms compared to patients diagnosed with other strains of the virus, while the proportion of patients with the variant strain who experienced loss of taste and smell was 16 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
The British variant of the virus was discovered in Kent last September and has now been found in more than 60 countries worldwide. According to the survey, the variant virus spreads faster, and recently some experts warned that the mortality rate of the variant virus may be higher, but the evidence is still not enough to prove the relevant claims.
Lawrence Young, a professor of virology at the University of Warwick, said that changes in the human body may affect the immune response and the range of symptoms. Young also added that patients infected with the mutated strain appear to have a higher viral load, producing more virus leading to widespread infection in the body and therefore symptoms including coughing, muscle aches and fatigue.
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