Such is level of anxiety that even a minor cough or cold is giving them chills and doctors are receiving a large number such cases on a daily basis, tribuneindia.com reported.

Doctors say normal cough, fever or cold existed before, too, but these days, residents feel if they have any of these, they have been affected by coronavirus, which isn’t always true, tribuneindia.com reported.

Medical experts said many people were spending sleepless nights because they were scared that they might contract the virus in the future.

Dr. Nirdosh Goel, a former head of the Department of Psychiatry, Civil Hospital, India, said a patient went into depression over worries that what recourse she would if she contracts the virus.

“The patient has been having sleepless nights for the past 12 days, which is serious. I have dealt with five such cases which I found serious. This is one of the manifestations of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the doctor shared.

He wondered how some people had themselves decided if they would contract the viral disease or not. Goel earlier said the anxiety could be cured if one indulged in activities such as exercise and yoga. The psychiatrist said people must indulge in cooking and doing things that made them happy.

A leading doctor from Kapurthala, India, who deals with a number of patients from rural areas on a daily basis said: “I have been witnessing a big change in the psychology of patients visiting me. One of the patients was so afraid as he had been suffering from fever for the past three to four days. His body language clearly told me that he was disturbed a lot. It was not the fever, but the fear of coronavirus that had made him so weak. I counseled him and told him that there was nothing to worry about. Later, when he found out that he had typhoid and not COVID-19, his fear vanished and he became happy.”

Since developmental delays are often present in very young children with autism, the report, published in the journal Pediatrics, urged doctors and gave them new guidelines to check for issues during all well-baby visits and refer children for treatment at the first sign of an issue, rather than wait for a formal autism evaluation, Reuters reported.

More than five million Americans are living with autism, a spectrum of disorders marked by deficits in social communication and interaction and repetitive behaviors of widely varying severity.

“The benefit of identifying children as early as possible is they can then be referred for treatment,” Dr. Susan Levy, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and co-author of the report, said in a phone interview.

Early treatment, and particularly behavioral interventions, do make a difference, Levy said.

Since 2007, when AAP published its last two guidance documents, the number of children in the United States diagnosed with autism has risen sharply. Autism now affects one in 59 children in the United States, up from one in 155 in 2007.

In that time, scientists have developed a better understanding of the potential risk factors and genes that contribute to autism, the related medical and behavioral conditions that commonly occur in children with the condition, and have detailed evidence on which interventions work best.

“This report is really focused on educating pediatricians and other healthcare providers about all the options and issues, and working to empower them since they’re in the front lines to make the early referrals,” Levy said.

The report urges doctors to steer families toward interventions backed by research and away from those with flimsy evidence. It specifically calls out many nutritional interventions that “do not have evidence to support their use.”

It also focuses on the need to screen for and treat other conditions that commonly occur in children with autism.

Some 40 percent of individuals with autism have intellectual disability, the report said, and about 40 percent to 60 percent of school-aged children and adults with autism have anxiety disorders. Others include attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), language disorders, sleep and feeding disorders, gastrointestinal symptoms and seizures.

The report encourages doctors to share decision making with families and help them plan for when a child transitions to adolescence and adulthood.