According to a new study by researchers from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), delirium coupled with fever could be an early indicator of Covid-19.

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Immunology and Immunotherapy. It highlighted that patients before developing evident symptoms like coughing and breathing difficulties, may develop delirium.

Researchers wrote that manifestation of this state of confusion, when accompanied by high fever, should be considered an early marker of the disease, particularly in the case of elderly patients.

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UOC researcher Javier Correa, who carried out this study at the University of Bordeaux (France), explained: “Delirium is a state of confusion in which the person feels out of touch with reality as if they are dreaming.”

He added: “We need to be on the alert, particularly in an epidemiological situation like this, because an individual presenting certain signs of confusion may be an indication of infection.”

Their study further stated that the novel coronavirus also affects the central nervous system and produces neurocognitive alterations. This includes headaches and delirium, as well as psychotic episodes.

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Correa said: “The main hypothesis which explains how the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 affects the brain points to three possible causes: hypoxia or neuronal oxygen deficiency, inflammation of brain tissue due to cytokine storm, and the fact that the virus has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier to directly invade the brain.”

He highlighted that any one of these three factors has the potential to result in delirium.

According to the researchers, delirium, cognitive deficits, and behavioural anomalies are most likely to be associated with systemic inflammation of the organ and a state of hypoxia.

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