Kenya medical practitioners have raised concerns over new symptoms seen in Covid-19 patients.
According to the Chief Medical Officer of Nairobi West Hospital Dr. Andrew Gachie, patients with the new symptoms end up at the Intensive Care Unit as soon they are admitted at the facility.
“One of the things we have noticed is that the majority of patients are coming in with difficulty in breathing with no fever or anything, and by the time they are admitted quite a majority of them will require intensive care,” Gachie said.
Nairobi West Hospital management has since put up a poster to remind the staff about the already known symptoms presented by those infected with Covid-19, along with the new ones.
Reports from the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) also indicate that patients are showing symptoms that differ from the ones that the World Health Organization (WHO) had earlier advised doctors to look out for when diagnosing patients for Covid-19.
“Some rare symptoms we have seen are for example diarrhoea, vomiting, headache, and occasionally a rash. We haven’t seen discoloration too commonly but it might be because of the affecting of the vessels by Covid-19 which forms clots,” said Dr. Loise Ombajo, Infectious Disease Specialist at KNH.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, the Ministry of Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr. Mercy Mwangangi said that the new symptoms that have caught the attention of Kenyan doctors have been reported in many other countries around the world.
"The disease has manifested an additional number of symptoms," Mwangangi said.
The initial symptoms like coughing, fever, shortness of breath, and loss of taste and smell have become too familiar to doctors examining patients hence a concern over the emerging ones.
This comes even as Kenya's Covid-19 cases continue to rise with questions as to whether the country is headed for a third wave spur debate from health experts.
On March 6, Kenya recorded 633 cases, one of the highest daily cases since November 2020.
As of March 8, Covid-19 cases in Kenya had risen to 109,164 and cumulative fatalities of 1,879.
