![]() Just note that the COVID-19 vaccine itself may also lead to swollen lymph nodes as a side effect, particularly in the armpit area on the side you received the injection. She also highly recommends getting vaccinated as soon as you can. Why Swollen Lymph Nodes Can Happen Post Vaccine. ![]() “If you have symptoms apart from neck swelling, I recommend isolating yourself and getting tested, but if the lymph nodes are your only symptom, please reach out to your healthcare provider for a full examination,” she says. Instead, she recommends focusing on other symptoms, such as fever, headache, chills, or body aches. Lee would not immediately think of COVID-19 as a cause, unless you know of a recent exposure. If you have swollen lymph nodes, especially in your neck, Dr. What to do if you have swollen lymph nodes “As adults, our neck node enlargement (and presence) is related to years of viral illnesses and in some cases, these never disappear but are palpable all the time, even when you’re not ill. “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.
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