While lung cancer, heart and kidney damage can result from COVID-19, doctors and researchers are also beginning to look at the possible long-term effects of the virus on the brain.
And many “long-haulers”, such as COVID-19 patients who have had symptoms for months after the first infection, report neurological problems such as dizziness and concentration problems (like concussion), such as headaches, extreme fatigue, mood changes , stroke and loss of taste and / or smoke.
Indeed, the CDC recently warned that it will take longer to recover from COVID-19 than the 10- to 14-day quarantine window that has been touted by the entire pandemic. In fact, one in five young adults under the age of 34 did not return to normal health until three weeks after testing positive. And 35% of American adults surveyed generally did not return to their normal state of health when interviewed two to three weeks after testing.
Now a study of 60 COVID-19 patients published this week in Lancet finds that 55% of them still show such neurological symptoms during follow-up visits three months later. And when doctors compared brain scans of these 60 COVID patients with those of a control group who were not infected, they found that the brains of the COVID patients showed structural changes that correlated with memory loss and smoking loss.
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And that is not exclusive to adults. A case study published in JAMA Neurology in June highlighted four UK children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a severe and potentially fatal condition that appears to be linked to COVID-19. These children develop neurological manifestations such as headache, muscle weakness, confusion and disorientation. While two of the children recovered, the other two symptoms persisted, including muscle weakness so severe that they needed a wheelchair.
Scientists are only beginning to understand the ways in which the novel coronavirus that has infected more than 19 million people worldwide and killed 715,000 and counts the body attacks.
Indeed, the most serious diseases and complications seem to stem from the body’s immune response to the viral invader, as opposed to the virus itself causing the damage. And some preliminary studies suggest that this immune response may damage the nervous system.
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London University College warned of a potential brain damage “epidemic” caused by COVID-19 in Brain magazine last month. The study examined 43 COVID patients treated in London in April and May, and found 10 cases of “temporary brain function” and delirium; 12 cases of encephalitis; eight cases of stroke; and eight cases of nerve damage.
“We need to be vigilant and look for these complications in people who have COVID-19,” said joint senior author Dr. Michael Zandi in a statement. “Whether we will see an epidemic on a large scale of brain damage associated with the pandemic – perhaps similar to the outbreak of encephalitis lethargica in the 1920s and 1930s after the 1918 pandemic – remains to be seen.”
There is something ahead of a pandemic that is causing a wave of neurological health problems. Svenn-Erik Mamelund, a social scientist who has been studying the demographics of epidemic diseases for more than 20 years, told Yahoo that the years jumped to reports of neurological and psychiatric problems worldwide after the 1918. pandemic. sleep, dizziness, depression and difficulty at work. And many people reported similar neurological symptoms after the Russian flu in 1889 and the 2009 Pandemic H1N1.
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“Despite their illness ‘over’, they have a lot of trouble getting back to normal life.”
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Dr Zijian Chen, the medical director of Mount Sinai’s Center for Post-COVID Care in New York, told MarketWatch that he also saw patients with extreme fatigue and severe concentration for several weeks to months after recovering from it. virus. “And this is important, despite their illness being ‘over’, they have a lot of trouble getting back to normal life,” he said.
While it is too early to say whether such post-COVID conditions will be chronic, Chen is concerned about returning patients who may return to work and school. “The patients will be somewhat hurt, so their ability to work, their contribution to the workforce, to the household product, will be reduced,” he said. “It will affect society at different levels than the rates [of infection and long-term illness] this continues to be great. ”
Indeed, some of these long-term symptoms are related to myalgic encephalomyelitis, also called chronic fatigue syndrome (as ME / CFS), which is a neuroimmune syndrome characterized by brain fatigue and extreme fatigue. And ME / CFS already has an estimated $ 17 billion to $ 24 billion impact on the U.S. economy based on medical bills and lost income of many patients who are unable to work, according to the CDC.
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In fact, CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 in March, revealed on his show last month that he had not yet fully recovered. And ME / CFS has been suggested to him as a reason why. ‘I have a onset of clinical depression, which is not sad. People keep saying to me, ‘Don’t be sad.’ I’m not sad. I’m depressed. It’s different. I can not control it, ‘he said.
A number of studies are underway to better understand how and why COVID-19 affects the brain. Some early theories, as reported by Johns Hopkins University, include severe cases of brain-spinal cord infection, as some cases reported in China and Japan found the genetic material of the virus in spinal fluid, and found a Florida case. viral particles in brain cells. Alternatively, the over-aggressive response of the immune system to the viral infection could lead the body to attack itself accidentally. Some other effects of the virus, such as fever or organ failure in the worst cases, can also cause brain function.
“So much of the focus right now is still how many people get sick and how many people die,” said Drs. Chen – which is natural when the country remains in a prolonged first wave of infections, including 11 straight days with 1,000 -plus deaths.
“But it’s not just about black and white, about getting better than dying,” he said. “There is a very gray spectrum of disease that can occur after COVID-19 that we have not even fully learned about yet.”
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