The 62-year-old man, who had hiccups for four days, showed no other symptoms of the disease.
By David Isaac, World Israel News
A Chicago man who suffered several days of persistent hiccups turned out to have coronavirus, prompting doctors to issue a warning that hiccups may be a new symptom of the disease.
“Here we present a case of persistent hiccups as the presenting symptom of a Covid-19 infection in a 62-year-old man,” according to a report published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.
The man, who had hiccups for four days, showed no other symptoms of the disease.
However, when admitted to hospital his lungs showed signs of groundglass opacities, which suggested he could be struggling with lung capacity. He was then treated for possible pneumonia until a corona test came back positive.
“To our knowledge, this is the first case report of persistent hiccups as the presenting complaint in a Covid-19 positive patient in emergency medicine literature,” the case report said.
Chicago doctors at Cook County Health hospital advised that physicians should keep coronavirus in mind as a possible cause when faced with unusual symptoms.
The medical field is learning more about the disease as time goes on. The most notable symptoms are fever and coughing. Later, loss of taste and smell were added. Hiccups might be next.