Zoonotic febrile illnesses misdiagnosed as COVID-19: a review of reported clinical cases.

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 is a zoonotic coronavirus disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. Its fast spreading by aerosol transmission has made it a highly contagious disease, causing the most recent 2020 pandemic. Although it mainly affects the respiratory system, atypical forms of the disease have been described, including developing an undifferentiated febrile illness without respiratory symptoms, that can represent a diagnostic challenge, mainly in tropical areas where several zoonotic febrile diseases are circulating. Thus, despite the broad clinical spectrum of COVID-19, in the tropics, other zoonotic etiologies should always be considered as differential diagnoses. According to our case reports review, eight different zoonotic febrile diseases misdiagnosed as COVID-19 have been reported in the available scientific literature of four databases. These were only suspected due to the epidemiological history. Thus, making a complete and detailed clinical history of a febrile patient in the tropics is essential to suspect the etiology and request the necessary confirmatory tests. Therefore, COVID-19 must be included as a differential diagnosis of undifferentiated febrile illness in the tropics, but other zoonotic infectious diseases must not be ruled out.