Belching as a symptom of COVID-19: Case presentation

Abstract

Introduction: The main symptoms of this viral infection are fever, dry cough and shortness of breath, but there is an increase in the report of cases of COVID-19 that presented gastrointestinal symptoms and evolved towards severity. Objective: To present a patient with SARS-CoV-2 infection who, from gastrointestinal manifestations, progressed to stages of disease severity and death. Case presentation: Male patient, 55 years old, with a history of high blood pressure for which he was following a treatment schedule with captopril (25 mg) 1 tablet twice a day. He began with general malaise and persistent belching, lasting several hours, fever appeared on the third day and a diagnosis of SARS CoV-2 infection was made . The next day, respiratory distress appeared suddenly while the aforementioned symptoms persisted and the patient progressed to acute respiratory distress syndrome, supported by ventilatory support, but died despite this. Conclusions: Gastrointestinal manifestations are not so infrequent, knowledge of these manifestations allows us to be alert during follow-up and establish an early diagnosis with the aim of reducing complications and the mortality rate in patients with atypical presentations of the disease.