Professor Azeem Majeed, president of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, told The Telegraph: “I think one thing is that, unlike two years ago, we now have population immunity through vaccination or previous infection that tends to somewhat suppress symptoms in things like runny nose, mild cough, sneezing, for example. would overlap enough with allergic fever. For this reason, people can therefore confuse it with allergic fever. “Now, because of immunity, people often have milder symptoms than before, and therefore may be confused with other illnesses such as the common cold or allergic fever.” He said the weakening of immunity from the last round of boosters, increased mixing and the end of free trials are likely to help increase Covid cases, but the confusion caused by allergic fever is likely to add to that. Marc Donovan, Boots chief pharmacist, published a guide this week to help people understand if they have Covid or allergic rhinitis.
Sneezing “is not a recognized Covid symptom”
“Typical symptoms of allergic fever include sneezing, runny or stuffy nose, itching, red watery eyes or itching in the throat, mouth, nose and ears,” he said. “The most common symptoms of Covid-19 include fever and / or a persistent cough.” And while Mr Donovan said sneezing was not a recognized Covid symptom, other experts disagreed. Professor Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London who founded the Zoe app, has long asked the government to expand its list of symptoms to reflect the fact that the micron symptoms look more like a cold than a delta, alpha and other variants. “Possible [high pollen levels are fooling people into thinking they have a bout of hay fever when in fact they have Covid]”People are very good at knowing when they are sick,” Professor Spector told the Telegraph. “It’s always good to check for new cold-like symptoms with a quick LFT test, but if your only symptoms are runny nose or sneezing, it may just be allergic rhinitis. “If the symptoms of allergic fever look worse than normal, I would advise people to have a test to be safe. “Covid cases are definitely on the rise again, so the more cases we can catch early, the more we can suppress the sharp rise in case numbers.” A study published earlier this year by the Zoe team at the Lancet found that three-quarters of patients with omicron have a runny nose, 70 percent have a sore throat and two-thirds have sneezing.
“Previous infection and vaccination will see us in the summer”
Data from Zoe also found that loss of smell or taste is 80 percent less common with omicron than with delta infections, while sore throat is 55 percent more common. Margaret Kelman, head of the Allergy UK clinic, told The Telegraph: Covid. early stages. “Symptoms of allergic fever tend to be itchy nose, eyes or throat, runny nose, sneezing and watery eyes. “Although the symptoms of allergic fever may increase in severity and make you feel unhappy, they do not cause the extreme lethargy, headaches or stomach upsets that can be seen with Ccovid and you will not have a high fever or fever with an allergic fever. despite the fever in his name “. Professor Majeed added that although the Covid indexes are currently showing an unfavorable direction, we will probably be fine in the summer, as respiratory viruses tend to thrive in the winter. “I would say we will probably be fine in the coming months,” he said. “I think we can see some increase, but I think the protective effects of the previous infection and the vaccination will see us in the summer.”
