What are the long term effects of the disease new virus covid-19? Do some of them stay with people for life?
Every day we learn more information about the new coronavirus and obtain previously unknown data. This is due to the fact that up to 80% of infected people have no symptoms or they appear after a few days or even weeks after infection. Many of them the disease occurs in a mild form without any complications.
As claimed by the world health organization, people, a disease that occurs in mild form, can recover within two weeks, while the rest of the recovery may take three to six weeks.
However, according to doctors, the new virus may enter the cells of many major organs, including the heart, kidneys, brain and even blood vessels, so the question immediately arises: is the infection of coronavirus, the cause of chronic diseases?
Joseph Brennan, a cardiologist from the Medical school at Yale University, said that he and other experts are concerned that some people who recover from coronavirus, will have long-term health problems associated with damage to the lungs, heart, and problems with the nervous system and intelligence.
According to the National health service of great Britain, among patients with coronavirus in need of hospitalization, 45% will need prolonged medical supervision, 4 percent for rehabilitation, and 1% — constant medical care.
The following are examples of long-lasting complications that can occur in people infected with coronavirus, regardless of age.
Scarring in the lungs
As a result of coronavirus in the lungs can appear scars. Scar tissue reduces the ability of the lungs to absorb air and turn it into oxygen. In humans, there is a constant feeling of discomfort in lungs and dry cough.
According to Brennan, these complications arise from the fact that the coronavirus provoke a serious immune response, so the voids in the lungs filled with pus, which makes the lungs less flexible.
In images of computed tomography of healthy lungs should appear black, but the lungs of patients with covid-19 often have gray spots that is called a symptom of “matte glass”, and the damaged areas might not be able to recover.
Says Ali Ghulam Razani Zaid, a radiologist of the medical faculty of the University of southern California, these changes in lung tissue can be irreversible.
2. Stroke and blood clotting
Many hospitalized patients with covid-19 suffer from blood clots, leading to pulmonary embolism, stroke, heart attacks and other serious complications of the prolonged nature.
Blockage of blood vessels in the brain can also cause stroke, although strokes occur more often in older people, today also reports on the strokes even among younger patients. For example, in the Chinese city of Wuhan, about 5% of hospitalized patients suffered a stroke, and a similar pattern was observed with SARS.
Young people have stroke mortality rates are relatively low compared to older people, and many recover. However, according to research, only from 42% to 53% of them are able to return to work.
3. Cardiac
According to the doctors, coronavirus can infect the heart muscle, causing its inflammation, because the heart contains large amounts of protein ACE2, which, according to scientists, is the point of entry of coronavirus into cells of the body.
“Doctors in China have noticed that some people complain of heart pain. They have a heart attack and has symptoms of infection of the coronavirus,” said Mitchell Elkind, President of the American heart Association and Professor of neurobiology and epidemiology at Columbia University.
According to reports, the new coronavirus can cause acute myocarditis and heart failure.
4. Renal failure
To date there has been no report of a coronavirus that affects the kidneys in cases when the disease occurs in mild form. Meanwhile, patients with pronounced symptoms of the coronavirus causing severe damage to the kidneys.
When the disease is severe, impaired blood clotting, which can cause small clots and blockage of blood vessels.
Disruption of the blood vessels can also affect the kidneys. In addition, there is scientific evidence that the virus can affect the kidney directly.
If cases of coronavirus discovered pneumonia and requires connection to a ventilator, the virus has a serious impact on the kidneys as pneumonia causes formation of large amounts of water around the lungs.
In this case, doctors give the patient diuretics to help rid the body of fluid, in connection with what the kidneys work harder than usual. Meanwhile, disorders of the blood vessels because of the appearance of clots worsen kidney condition.
“Almost all patients with pneumonia and is connected to the ventilator also had kidney problems,” said Der Spiegel magazine, the head of the German Nephrology society, Jan Christoph Galle.
In studies of the kidneys revealed that as a result of coronavirus kidneys can not fully perform its functions.
“The results of urinalysis on admission to the hospital half of the patients were found blood and protein, which is an early sign of kidney damage,” he told The Washington Post Alan Kliger, a nephrologist from the Medical school of Yale University.
According to Kliger, such serious complications were recorded in 14-30% of cases in new York city and Wuhan, where the patients in need of kidney dialysis.
5. Implications for the nervous system and intellect
Coronavirus also affect the Central nervous system that can have long-term health effects. In one Chinese study says that more than a third of the 214 hospitalized and had neurological symptoms, including dizziness, headache, disturbance of consciousness, problems with vision and loss of taste and smell.
Long-term complications after infection with coronavirus (caused by a virus or created by inflammation) which can include impairment of attention, concentration and memory as well as disorders of the peripheral nervous system.
6. Male infertility
As the researchers suggest, covid-19 can lead to special consequences for men’s health. In a letter to the International journal of urology scholar, Ali a Slave explained that the testes contain a large number of receptors ACE2, therefore, there is a theoretical likelihood of damage and subsequent infertility after infection with coronavirus.
According to the study, 81 men infected with coronavirus were discovered problems with the level of male hormones that may indicate reduced fertility.
“After recovery young people wishing to have children should receive counseling about their fertility,” — said in the scientific article, published in the journal Nature in April.
7. Smell and taste
Sudden loss or impairment of smell can be a symptom of infection by the coronavirus. Young people with this disease are more likely to have symptoms such as fever and cough. This means that the sudden loss of smell could indicate a latent carrier of coronavirus.
As you know, the coronavirus penetrate into the nasal tissue through the receptor ACE2 and can cause temporary damage to the olfactory nerves. However, this symptom appears, disappears within one to two weeks after infection.
Although the majority of people reporting these symptoms, sense of smell returns, it is too early to judge how many people may lose him forever.
