32-year-old Lucy Bailey noticed something went off in the last week of April.
She and her partner, who live in London, had stomach problems over the weekend. He got better, but after her nausea subsided, she had a seizure and began coughing while calling her boss. One day, she hurt her chest and ran out of air. Paramedics told her that she probably had Covid-19, even though she couldn’t take the test as a non-essential worker. They saw many unidentified cases like her.
Her doctor confirmed a possible diagnosis, but she wasn’t too worried. She was healthy. She had mild exercise-induced asthma, which did not stop her from doing 5ks frequently. “The doctor said, “I think there is no reason you shouldn’t recover, given your age and health,” says Bailey.
Still, “It was two months [this past] “I finally got back to work on Saturday,” she says. She is currently working from home, but due to her extreme fatigue, she is unable to sign on for more than three and a half days a week.
Bailey’s experience with Covid-19 is not unique. World Health Organization estimates that most mild cases of Covid-19 should be resolved In 2 weeks.. However, even in mild cases, more people report symptoms after 6, 8, or even 12 weeks.
Online support groups on Facebook and independent sites include Thousands of members, Each is navigating protracted symptoms that the doctor cannot explain. Some still wind easily and lose their breath after climbing the stairs. Some patients develop blood clots, which can lead to stroke and kidney problems. Others complain of extreme fatigue (like connecting to your sofa for days at a time) or nervous fatigue that makes planning and concentration difficult.
So far, scientists have collected little data on these individuals. They haven’t fought a Covid-19 infection, but they haven’t fully recovered. For cracked patients, health professionals are struggling to provide supportive care. Here’s how we started to explain the long-term health consequences of Covid-19 infection.
SARS sneakers
To tackle the mystery of slow recovery, scientists start by knowing about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
Unfortunately, even that knowledge is shallow. SARS-CoV-2 has not been used for a year. But scientists it can Try borrowing a bit of your virus cousin, SARS-CoV. This is a coronavirus that is more than 10 years old and has infected 8,000 people.
Both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 infected cells Via the ACE2 receptorBoth coronaviruses cause respiratory symptoms because lung cells have a higher number of ACE2 receptors than other cells in the body.
SARS-CoV needs to be around many ACE2 receptors, so its ideal home is the lungs. But “SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t require so many ACE2 receptors,” says Panagis Galliatosatos, a pulmonologist at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. The virus that causes Covid-19 penetrates any cell that has the ACE2 receptor, regardless of concentration. This includes cells in the back of the throat, digestive tract, heart, kidneys, and even the brain.
The ability of the virus to infect so many types of cells carries some of the symptoms not normally associated with respiratory infections. Covid-19 symptoms include: Gastrointestinal distress Like diarrhea or vomiting, or Neurological problem, Like losing taste, smell and dizziness.
People with Covid-19 may also have more serious complications, depending on which other organs are infected. Now scientists are aware that SARS-CoV-2 can cause damage To the kidneys And heart Directly or through the coagulation of blood passing through these organs. Galiatsatos says these additional infected sites “shattered our world.”
From recovery to rebuilding
Knowing that Covid-19 can affect all of these organs, it’s not too surprising that some people will feel the effects for a long time after the healthcare provider predicts.
There are two possible explanations for those who are still in the so-called “mild” cases that do not require hospitalization, says Galiatsatos. Covid-19 may be exacerbating an existing condition that the body could previously compensate for.
Galliatosas gives an example of how mild asthma appears to have disappeared: “Your lungs are smart,” he says. “They strengthen some and others remain ill.” Probably after Covid-19 infection, the healthy parts of the lung can no longer be compensated and the original asthma relapses.
The second factor to consider is the healing process itself. After defeating an infection, it is the immune system’s job to repair damaged organs. (Sometimes the immune system diverges too much, cleaning up the confusion of itself Inflammatory reaction.. The immune system is usually quite good at doing these repairs. But sometimes it becomes MacGyver’s incomplete solution. For example, a wound forms in the lungs where the virus has been damaged. The organization may not be able to carry out the gas exchanges it was previously using.
Both newly awakened conditions and failure to cure by Covid-19 can affect a person’s long-term health. But scientists are still uncertain about the extent of these effects. There was not enough time to complete such a study. researcher King’s College London and Massachusetts General Hospital And that University of California San Francisco We are currently collecting some of these data.
If the doctor says that the pandemic worsened, it is clear that the infected person may not have gone out of the forest. By documenting these long-term effects, scientists would be happy to identify the root cause. The treatment thereby supports full recovery.
