“If you feel your own neck at the time of an acute viral illness, you will note that some of these nodes feel enlarged if you check back weeks later, they will often still feel slightly enlarged,” Dr. from a recent infection like COVID-19) from routine borderline enlarged nodes related to past viral illnesses. Nachman points out that it can be quite difficult to differentiate between true acutely enlarged neck lymph nodes (i.e. Two small studies, published in The Lancet: Infectious Diseases, suggest that swollen lymph nodes are found in under 10% of adults who had a confirmed COVID-19 infection. “It is, after all, your body trying to fight the virus and stop from it going down into the chest cavity and the lungs,” says Dr. Swollen glands aren’t an immediate sign of COVID-19, but it is a possible symptom. Are swollen lymph nodes a possible symptom of COVID-19? “They are all over your body, including your neck, groin, and armpit.” However, usually just one area of nodes swells at a time, per the ACS. “Swollen lymph nodes can feel like small, rubbery, pea-sized nodules to large, tender, boggy, cherry-sized nodules to even larger, hard, very tender, plum-sized nodules,” explains Dr. “The lymph fluid, traveling through lymphatic channels, contain lymphocytes (white blood cells) that help your body fight off infections and diseases-hence the swollen nodes,” says Nikhil Bhayani, M.D., an infectious disease physician with Texas Health Resources in Bedford, TX.įor the latest health news, join Prevention Premium to gain exclusive access to expert-backed wellness content you can trust.Īnd they’ll be hard to miss. Why? They collect fluid, waste, and “bad cells” to essentially filter them out of the body, per the American Cancer Society (ACS). They’re a major component of the immune system and become larger when they’re responding to an infection. We have hundreds of lymph nodes-small, bean-shaped glands-throughout our body. What typically causes swollen lymph nodes? And what do they feel like? “Strep throats are a perfect example: Some children present with high fever, others with sore throats and mild fever, and others with abdominal pain-yet a throat swab in each case reports out the same pathogen.”ĬOVID-19 is similar, she notes, as the immune system response to the virus differs between people. “Similar to other viral and even bacterial illnesses, each person may have some overlapping symptoms and some different ones,” says Sharon Nachman, M.D., chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital in New York. Even though cases of the virus are now dropping across the country, thousands of positive coronavirus infections are still reported every day. If you’re experiencing a symptom that’s not on the CDC’s list, you should still pay close attention to how you’re feeling. Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing These are the most common symptoms of COVID, according to the CDC: What are the “official” symptoms of COVID-19? Feuerstein says.īut do swollen glands automatically signal COVID-19? Here’s what doctors want you to know. “The lymph nodes are where the immune system of the neck is located, so any infection in the head or neck will cause an activation of the lymph nodes as they get inflamed,” Dr. However, swollen lymph nodes, especially in the neck area, are a hallmark sign of any viral or bacterial infection in the upper respiratory tract (nose, mouth, throat, etc.), says Joseph Feuerstein, M.D., director of integrative medicine at Stamford Hospital and associate professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University.
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