Coronavirus patient puzzles New York doctors with rare symptoms
- There were no telltale signs of the virus in lung scans or swabs of the upper respiratory tract, new study says
- It took a highly invasive test to confirm the case of Covid-19, with the results coming back just before the man left hospital
In a study published in the medical journal The Lancet on Monday, the doctors said scans of the patient’s lungs indicated a fungal invasion, tests showed no telltale sign of the coronavirus in the upper respiratory tract and the patient had an immune response called a cytokine storm within just hours of the disease’s onset.
“For a disease that was unknown only five months ago, it might … be too early for clinicians to be certain of which manifestations are typical,” the team led by Timothy Harkin from Mount Sinai Hospital’s pulmonary division, said in the paper.
The patient was a 34-year-old male anaesthesiologist in otherwise good health. He initially tested positive for influenza A and the symptoms disappeared following a routine treatment.
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After more than 10 days’ rest, the patient returned to work at a medical centre in the city only to suddenly fall very ill that afternoon and be admitted to the emergency department at Mount Sinai Hospital.