COVID-19 versus Allergic Rhinitis

Abstract

COVID-19 is a new contagious, deadly viral/immunological systemic disorder with predominantly respiratory features caused by human infection with SARS-CoV-2, which is rapidly spreading from person-to-person all around the world as a pandemic, whereas, Allergic Rhinitis is an old non-contagious, non-deadly, and non-viral disorder with nasal inflammation which occurs when the immune system overreacts to allergens. Mild to moderate COVID-19 can be mistaken with Allergic Rhinitis. Fever, dry cough, dyspnea, fatigue, body ache, anosmia, and lack of taste are the cardinal feature of COVID-19, whereas runny nose, stuffy nose, sneezing, postnasal discharge, itchy eyes, and itchy skin are the cardinal feature of Allergic Rhinitis. Some of the cardinal feature of COVID-19 can be accessory feature of Allergic Rhinitis and vice versa. These two diseases are usually distinguishable by an expert physician. At the same time, an inexperienced physician will easily confuse them. The known cases of Allergic Rhinitis have allergies in this spring or year similar to previous years, not COVID-19, unless this time the symptoms are sudden, new, or more severe, and with previous conventional allergy treatment; don’t give up and get even worse. In fact, the mission of this article is to provide the easiest way to differentiate these two diseases. In the SARS-CoV-2 epidemics in the Red zones, when we cannot differentiate these two diseases; Allergic Rhinitis should be discarded in favor of COVID-19.