Objective

to describe the most frequent signs and symptoms of infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Methods

this is a narrative literature review carried out in April 2020; the search was performed on electronic databases and complemented with a manual review of the references of the selected papers and Brazilian Ministry of Health publications.

Results

the spectrum of clinical disease was wide; fever, coughing and dyspnea were the most frequent signs/symptoms, however, they may not be present, thus hindering case definition; gastrointestinal symptoms and loss of taste or smell have been reported among mild cases; dyspnea was frequent among severe and fatal cases.

Conclusion

considering the scarcity of diagnostic tests and the diversity of symptoms, health services should use a sensitive case definition, in order to adopt appropriate surveillance, prevention and treatment actions.

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