Suspected COVID-19 case definition: a narrative review of the most frequent signs and symptoms among confirmed cases

Iser, B. P. M.; Sliva, I.; Raymundo, V. T.; Poleto, M. B.; Schuelter-Trevisol, F.; Bobinski, F.

OBJECTIVE: to describe the most frequent signs and symptoms of infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) METHODS: this is a narrative literature review carried out in April 2020;the search was performed on electronic databases and complemented with a manual review of the references of the selected papers and Brazilian Ministry of Health publications RESULTS: the spectrum of clinical disease was wide;fever, coughing and dyspnea were the most frequent signs/symptoms, however, they may not be present, thus hindering case definition;gastrointestinal symptoms and loss of taste or smell have been reported among mild cases;dyspnea was frequent among severe and fatal cases CONCLUSION: considering the scarcity of diagnostic tests and the diversity of symptoms, health services should use a sensitive case definition, in order to adopt appropriate surveillance, prevention and treatment actions