A British GP has revealed she suffered viral meningitis symptoms linked to the new COVID-19 Omicron subvariant BA.5.
Symptoms from earlier COVID-19 variants mainly included fever, cough and loss of smell or taste. But, with the emergence of Omicron, the list of symptoms has expanded to include shortness of breath, loss of appetite, feeling exhausted, body aches, sore throat, headache, blocked or runny nose, diarrhoea and nausea.
And, while there is currently no evidence to suggest symptoms for the Omicron BA.5 subvariant (soon to become the dominant strain in New Zealand) are more severe, UK doctor Claire Taylor has revealed the surprising BA.5 symptoms she suffered - likening them to viral meningitis.
There's evidence of patients presenting with similar symptoms earlier in the pandemic. Scientists in September 2020, when the original strain of the coronavirus was circulating, published a case study about a 21-year-old man who presented to the hospital with meningitis symptoms but was later found to have COVID-19.
"In this case, the patient initially presented with fever and frontal headache along with neck stiffness," said the study, published in the Frontiers in Public Health journal.
"During this ongoing pandemic, there is a need to make physicians and other healthcare workers cognizant of rare presentations such as this, so that we can diagnose and manage these patients at the earliest possible opportunity, which prevents the horizontal spread of the virus and ensures patient safety."
COVID-19 and viral meningitis already share some of the same symptoms including fever, headache and body aches.
Viral meningitis is most prevalent in teenagers and adults and is most commonly caused by enterovirus, shingles or chickenpox, or the herpes simplex virus.
Unlike bacterial meningitis, the viral form of the disease isn't usually lethal.
"Someone posted today about #COVID19 being a cold and we should all just catch it and take paracetamol. So I thought I would tell you all about my experience with the new BA.5 variant," said Dr Taylor.
"Suffice to say I did not have a cold," she said on Twitter.
One symptom reported by her 9-year-old son, who also tested positive, was a stiff neck. Dr Taylor said she took his temperature and it was 38.8C - above the normal 37C body temperature.
She said she also had body aches and felt like she'd been "hit by a bus".
"I actually could not move my neck at all. [My] temperature was up and felt generally miserable," Dr Taylor said. "NO cold symptoms whatsoever.
"Around day 10 I developed numbness and tingling down my left arm. I still could not move my neck."
The GP also revealed she had distorted vision.
"I saw a lovely optician who told me my eyes were fine so not an eye problem," Dr Taylor said.
"Four days later (now at day 14) the numbness and tingling resolved. I could move my neck but it was still sore down the left side into my arm."
Dr Taylor said BA.5 wasn't a respiratory virus for her and her son, likening her symptoms to "essentially viral meningitis".
She said the subvariant was a "nasty piece of work" and urged people to mask up and test for COVID-19 before meeting with others.
"I'm not sure how much clearer I can say this. I did not have a cold."
Speaking to The Project on Tuesday, Melbourne-based Kiwi epidemiologist Tony Blakely said BA.5, in conjunction with influenza, meant "we're going to see a lot of pressure on hospitals".
Prof Blakely said getting vaccinated, while "nowhere near perfect", would reduce people's chances of being infected.
"It still gives you that extra boost against hospitalisation and death," he said. "So it helps protect the hospitals."
