COVID-19 Symptom Changes in A General Medicine Office in Toledo, Spain, 2020-2024. From Multisystemic Disease to Common Cold Like to Flu Like
Jose Luis Turabian
ABSTRACT
Background: It is not well known if there have been changes in the clinical characteristics during the evolution of covid-19 from the beginning of the pandemic to the current endemic
Objective: To know the variations the clinical features of cases of covid-19 from 2020 to 2024.
Methodology: Descriptive analysis and comparison of secondary data of cases of covid-19 from previous studies in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 years, all of them carried out in the same population of patients treated in a general medicine office in Toledo, Spain.
Results: 100 covid-19 cases were included in 2020, 42 in 2021, 46 in 2022, 76 in 2023 and 54 in 2024. These cases from the respective samples differed in a statistically significant way in that they were progressively older and had a tendency to present greater number of chronic diseases in 2024 versus 2020. The statistically significant differences between symptoms were: 1) A tendency to present more General symptoms from 2020 to 2024; 2) A peak of increased frequency of ENT symptoms in 2022; And 3) A progressive trend to present fewer Digestive symptoms from 2020 to 2024.
Conclusion: In the general practice setting in Toledo, Spain, from 2020 to 2024, cases of covid-19 were mild in all years, showed a tendency to go from symptoms of multiple organ systems at the beginning of the pandemic, to a common cold-like syndrome in 2022, to a flu-like syndrome in 2024, and occurred in people progressively older with more chronic diseases.
