Glenn Ellis: What does COVID-19 do to your lungs? | Health

What’s so deadly about this COVID-19? What does it do to the body which is more threatening than flu, HIV / AIDS, or anything else that can kill us? So why not shut down the whole country for these things? Why COVID-19? What does it do to your body? Many people in this country are asking these questions.

Given that trillions of dollars are devoted to healthcare each year in this country, we have scientific / medical smarts and technologies to address the health threats to Rona and other people. think. Instead, as a nation, we look like Keystone Police! Information seems to change every day. And most of the time, it’s authoritative and confident, inconsistent with what was said the day before.

For many of us, it’s no surprise that we can only compare this present crisis to what we reference. I remember the epidemic of HIV / AIDS. Millions died, but there was no “shutdown”. Same as Ebola, H1N1, Swine Flu, SARS, MERSA, etc. All are actually deadlier than COVID-19, but the difference with others is obvious when infected. This made it easier to identify the infected person, and the results in isolation were much better. As we now know, with COVID-19, individuals can roam around as carriers before they show symptoms, and can infect family, friends and colleagues along the way.

This means that by the time a person actually receives medical care, they are already very ill and can do little to save. So, at this time, there is no proven cure and the only hope (if you get sick enough) is a ventilator.

I think this is a good place to provide insight into why the virus doesn’t want to get into the body.

There are two main ways a virus can spread. From person to person, the way in which an infected person coughs or sneezes is through a droplet of respiratory tract and contact with a contaminated surface where the virus can survive hours to days at a time. Conclusion: COIVID-19 wants to enter your respiratory system.

We’ve all seen tiny “spike-like” things on the ball, an image that shows us what the virus looks like. Once inside, those spikes begin to “hijack” the cells and the virus does the only thing it knows it does. It creates more viruses and then “hijacks” more cells. The virus only needs to get a bit of its own genetic material inside the cell, which was stabbed by a “spike”. After the virus gets what it needs, the cells die and the virus moves. Lung inflammation causes the body’s immune response, which, despite its best intentions, can often be overreacted. Especially when you encounter an opponent you’ve never seen before. In fact, it doesn’t even look a bit like what was seen before. This runaway reaction can cause more damage to the body’s own cells than the virus the body is trying to kill. Many epidemiologists believe that this is the main reason why the condition of young, healthy people deteriorates rapidly and can even lead to death.

The injured lungs of the poor are filled with fluid, causing a dry cough that makes breathing difficult.

In 80-85% of people infected with COVID-19, these symptoms develop in the same way as they do with influenza.

The Associated Press reports that more than 80% of ventilator COVID-19 patients do not survive. They call it “life support.” Wearing a respirator means that you were ill enough to die. Often overlooked is the damage from ventilators. It results from the pressure needed to supply oxygen to the body through the diseased lungs. Some of these patients have significant pulmonary fibrosis, lung scarring and poor lung function. This may be the short-term part of their recovery, or the long-term one.

So there are people dying here. The mechanical work alone puts in a ventilator of oxygen to prevent organ failure through a mechanical source that can further damage the weakened lungs. Isn’t it a happy ending recipe?

It should be mentioned that the lung fluid itself is filled with a waste of dead cells at the expense of the virus. It is currently circulated throughout the body and carries the oxygen that is provided to the whole body by the ventilator. Blood enriched with proteins from cell debris in the lungs can cause sepsis in severe cases.

As you can see, COVID-19 is not a joke. It is not to get it, but to receive it, if there is any way possible.

Thankfully, COVID-19 is not a death sentence for most infected people, but the above symptoms are uncomfortable. Until the vaccine is developed, the best defense is to avoid infection altogether by using recommended frequent and thorough hand washing and physical distances.