There is an interesting article on the much different symptoms for covid-19 that may be seen in the elderly.
From the Kaiser Health Network, khn.org/news/seniors-with-covid-19-show-unusual-symptoms-doctors-say/:
From the Kaiser Health Network, khn.org/news/seniors-with-covid-19-show-unusual-symptoms-doctors-say/:
Quote:
COVID-19 is typically signaled by three symptoms: a fever, an insistent cough and shortness of breath. But older adults the age group most at risk of severe complications or death from this condition may have none of these characteristics.
Instead, seniors may seem "off" not acting like themselves early on after being infected by the coronavirus. They may sleep more than usual or stop eating. They may seem unusually apathetic or confused, losing orientation to their surroundings. They may become dizzy and fall. Sometimes, seniors stop speaking or simply collapse.
...
Dr. Sam Torbati, medical director of the Ruth and Harry Roman Emergency Department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, describes treating seniors who initially appear to be trauma patients but are found to have COVID-19.
"They get weak and dehydrated," he said, "and when they stand to walk, they collapse and injure themselves badly."
Torbati has seen older adults who are profoundly disoriented and unable to speak and who appear at first to have suffered strokes.
"When we test them, we discover that what's producing these changes is a central nervous system effect of coronavirus," he said.
...
In Switzerland, Dr, Sylvain Nguyen, a geriatrician at the University of Lausanne Hospital Center, put together a list of typical and atypical symptoms in older COVID-19 patients for a paper to be published in the Revue Mdicale Suisse. Included on the atypical list are changes in a patient's usual status, delirium, falls, fatigue, lethargy, low blood pressure, painful swallowing, fainting, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and the loss of smell and taste.
