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| - Fact Check: AIIMS did not issue this misleading statement on corona symptoms
A message on Covid-19 symptoms has gone viral on WhatsApp and Facebook, attributing it to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. India Today Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found this to be a misleading claim. AIIMS has not released any such statement, comparing symptoms of different diseases.
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India Today Fact Check
AIIMS has not released any such statement comparing symptoms of different diseases. The viral post also gives misleading information about Covid-19 symptoms.
A message on Covid-19 symptoms has gone viral on WhatsApp and Facebook, attributing it to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. The viral message lists out respiratory symptoms of Covid-19 and compares them with other diseases.
Multiple Facebook users have posted the message, which purportedly lists out the differences in symptoms between Covid-19, flu and common cold.
The viral message goes like this:
*Please note the differences*
(1) dry cough + sneeze = air pollution
(2) cough + mucus + sneeze + runny nose = common cold
(3) Cough + mucus + sneeze + runny nose + body ache + weakness + light fever = flu
(4) Dry cough + sneeze + body pain + weakness + high fever + difficulty breathing = coronavirus
Pathology department AIIMS, Delhi
*Make this message available to as many people as possible!*
India Today Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found this to be a misleading claim. AIIMS has not released any such statement, comparing symptoms of different diseases. The message, falsely attributed to AIIMS, also gives misleading information about Covid-19 symptoms.
The archived versions of the posts can be seen here, here and here. The post is viral on Facebook.
AIIMS has a separate portal on Covid-19 and it had also released a basic advisory and guideline about the disease.
AIIMS has identified some common symptoms of the disease, including “fever, sore throat, cough and shortness of breath”. The guide also mentions that the indications of having Covid-19 are “similar to the symptoms of any viral infection, like the common cold, influenza”. But nowhere does it compare the symptoms of different diseases.
We found some similarities between the viral message and an article published on March 18 on the website of former Indian Medical Association president Dr KK Agarwal.
A paragraph about coronavirus symptoms on the website reads, “Symptoms: fever, tiredness, and dry cough (most common); only cough (pollution), cough and cold (allergy), fever with sore throat in children (streptococcal), fever above 100.4 with cough and cold (flu), fever with cough and breathlessness (corona like illness), cough > 2 weeks rule out TB. No fever no flu no corona; No breathlessness no seriousness, no breathlessness no oxygen requirement no seriousness”.
The symptoms mentioned in the viral post about Covid-19 are also misleading. The World Health Organization (WHO) states, “COVID-19 affects different people in different ways. Most infected people will develop mild to moderate illness and recover without hospitalization.”
There are also asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 where the patient never develops any symptom but carries the virus in the body. A report published in “The Lancet” says, “According to data from the Indian Government, more than 80% of confirmed cases in India are asymptomatic, making the population vulnerable to community spread of the virus.”
But the viral post never mentions about asymptomatic cases. Hence, the viral post about Covid-19 symptoms is not only misleading, but also falsely attributed to AIIMS.
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