Construyendo la semiología de la COVID-19: los sabios ciegos y el elefante

Abstract

ObjectiveConstruction of mild and moderate COVID-19's semiology between patients and professionals in primary care. MethodQualitative investigation in a phenomenological theoretical frame, from an epistemic justice position, settled in Catalonia, primary care settings, during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic (April–May 2020). 15 patients and 9 professionals participated. Data collection was done through semi-structured phone interviews to patients with a microbiological confirmed diagnostic of COVID-19 and followed at primary care and semi-structured narratives of professionals. Data were triangled by the three authors. ResultsWe described the most common symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, loss of appetite, muscular and joint pain, and high airways symptoms), those that worry them the most, hesitancy about symptoms and semiology's temporality according to the descriptions done by patients. ConclusionsOfficial protocols should include other symptoms as fatigue, loss of appetite, muscle and joint aches and high airways symptoms as frequent symptoms of COVID-19 attending to the stories of patients. Those unspecified symptoms can be unnoticed by patients and professionals and can delay the detection of disease and the contact tracing in primary care. It is necessary to obtain a detailed description of the symptoms and avoid translating them into pre-established medical terms that with their meaning substitute and make the patients’ report invisible, turning professionals deaf and blind to a new disease and making more difficult for them to build the narration of disease.