Persistent hiccups in men with Covid 19-two cases from Nigeria
Copyright (c) 2021 Ethiopian Medical Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Articles
- Submited: April 20, 2021
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Published: January 1, 2022
Abstract
Hiccups are defined as extraordinary type of respiratory movement involving a sudden inspiration (intake of air) due to an involuntary contraction of the diaphragm accompanied by closure of the glottis (the vocal apparatus of the larynx). The abrupt inspiration is the result of a sudden contraction of the diaphragm. The classification of hiccups is by their duration. Acute hiccups are of less than 48 hours duration, persistent last over 2 days, and intractable last over a month.
It is a rare but distinct chemosensory presentation of COVID 19 disease and seldomly reported from Africa. We report 2 cases of persistent hiccups in Nigerian men with RT-PCR positive cases of mild COVID-19 disease. Both men (aged 59, 63 years) had associated fever, anosmia and ageusia, with hiccups onset 2-4 days after COVID- 19 diagnosis, and in one case it persisted for 10 days, including for 3 days after SARS-CoV-2 negativity.
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