A 20-year-old woman has told of experience testing positive for Covid-19 after having an array of symptoms that aren’t typically linked to coronavirus.
The most common symptoms of coronavirus are a dry, persistent cough and a fever.
The young woman, who tweets from the handle @JuliaBuscaglia, shared her experience on Twitter.
“I was not going to share my story, but now that I see others are reporting very different symptoms than mine I feel it’s important to tell everyone my experience,” she wrote.
Julia went on to tweet a timeline of her illness, in diary-form.
“February 29th: I woke up this day in agony,” her first post read.
“My head was pounding, my ears throbbing, and it felt as if my throat was on fire. My body ached, I had chills, and I had a fever of 100.2. I took over the counter anti-inflammatories and stayed in bed the entire day.”
The next tweet jumped forward to Julia’s last day in Italy, on March 3rd.
“I still couldn’t hear, and at this point I lost all ability to taste and smell, yet I did not have a runny nose or cough,” it read.
“I had a headache constantly during the day which I just treated with Tylenol. I left the next morning to return to America.”
She described March 4th as the day that scared her to look back on.
“I flew home, and not a single person asked where I had been. Not even at customs. They didn’t blink an eye at me. I had layovers in LARGE cities. Again, there was no doubt in my mind that I didn’t have the virus.”
“March 5th-13th: As we were told, I stayed in self quarantine during these days,” the next tweet read.
“I had contact with only two people. No symptoms were present that the CDC warned us about. I had a WET cough. And my hearing, taste, and smell finally returned.”
On Friday 13 March, Julia got tested for the virus.
This was not her plan, she explained, but rather the consequence of having family members working in the health sector, who wanted her to be sure she was well before returning to work.
She had to ask repeatedly to be tested, according to her tweets.
Julia said she got a call on March 14, informing her she had tested positive for Covid-19.
“My jaw DROPPED,” she recalled.
“How was I positive? I didn’t have the symptoms on the news, I got cleared by a doctor, and no one cared.”
“..at customs I had come from a high risk country. I guess why I’m telling you all of this is because what they are telling you are symptoms are not ALL symptoms. And you do NOT have to have the symptoms to be positive. The only symptom I had that was similar was a fever.”
Julia said she didn’t know how she had been infected.
She urged others to learn from her experience.
People should stay indoors, she said, to help prevent the spread of the disease.
“I know many of you have spring breaks, trips, work, and activities planned.
“But I want you to understand many individuals my age are not showing symptoms. I know we joke and laugh about not having this virus. But this is not a joke anymore.
“Please cancel your trips.”
While she was healthy at the time of her posts, Julia said it didn’t mean she was clear of risk – and nor were other young people.
“To those of you in the same situation as me, I wish you all a speedy recovery and to stay healthy,” she wrote.
“Drink fluids and wash your hands.
“Please remember, just because you are not showing symptoms does NOT mean you do not have it.”