Sequelae of Covid 19 Infection

New Covid 19 Sequelae Emerges! Important Serious Damages, this article is from the public No. : Australian Micro-News WeChat: XWWB66/

More than 7 million people worldwide have been infected with the new coronavirus. The number of patients who died due to the new coronavirus is more than 400,000!  Humans are helpless about the plague that has ravaged the world, and the virus is still spreading throughout the world. Those who survived the devastation are still struggling with their illness. It is reported that in the worst-hit areas of Europe and the United States, more and more “rehabilitation” patients have a sequelae.

1. Damage to the lungs: Recently, many of Italy’s new coronary pneumonia “rehabilitation” people still have the physical discomfort. These patients are still being treated with cough, fatigue and other sequelae. When some people return to work, they can’t even take a short walk because of short breathing and muscle aches. Italian football superstar Paolo Maldini said he has recovered from a minor infection, but has left a legacy. “I tried to go to the gym today for some training, but after just 10 minutes, I couldn’t hold on.” A similar situation has occurred in Hong Kong. The Infectious Diseases Centre of Princess Margaret Hospital in Hong Kong followed up the first 10 discharged patients and found that three of them had impaired lung function by 20 to 30 percent. The after-effects are mainly manifested in the faster walking that causes shortage of gas, cannot do normal exercise, or even cannot go back to the previous work. Wang Guiqiang, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Peking University’s First Hospital, pointed out that severe lung infections can develop pulmonary fibrosis. Some seriously ill patients will develop lung fibrosis after treatment, affecting daily life and later advances to a stage that needing lung transplant. At present for pulmonary fibrosis, there is no special treatment and the disease is irreversible.
2. Damage to the liver and the kidneys: In addition to damage to the lungs, there is growing evidence that the new coronavirus can also leave a legacy on the liver and kidneys of infected people. Legendary American rapper Scarface is recovering from infection and symptoms had disappeared, leaving kidney failure worsening due to the virus, now he is on dialysis treatment. But experts say recovery from kidney damage may be a long way off. Two months ago, studies have shown that kidney damage is common in people with new coronavirus infections. The paper, Caution 0n Kidney Dysfunctions of 2019-nCoV Patients, looked at 59 cases of infection from Wuhan, Huangshi, and Chongqing cities. It was found that 63% of patients showed symptoms of renal insufficiency, and CT scans showed 100% of patients with abnormal renal imaging. Experts in the UK and Canada have also found that 8 to 12 per cent of new crown virus patients in intensive care have liver or kidney failure and need to rely on year-round dialysis to survive. Huang Bo, deputy director of the Institute of Basic Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said liver and kidney damage in infected people may be caused by lung dysfunction. “When breathing dysfunction occurs, oxygen exchange is blocked, other organs are oxygen-dishful, and kidneys that are particularly sensitive to oxygen often experience severe functional damage.
3. Damage to the brain: In addition to the lungs, liver and kidneys, studies have found     that many recovering patients have very serious central nerve sequelae. A neurological study of patients hospitalized with new coronavirus pneumonia in Huazhong University of Science and Technology showed that more than 30% of the 214 patients had neurological symptoms, which were manifested in three categories: First,central nervous system symptoms such as headache, dizziness, consciousness disorder, acute cerebrovascular disease, epilepsy, etc. Second, peripheral nervous system symptoms such as taste loss, loss of smell, loss of appetite, nerve pain, etc. Third, skeletal muscle damage.  A 24-year-old Japanese man living alone developed a high fever after contracting the new coronavirus, accompanied by headaches and weakness of his limbs. A few days later the man was unconscious at home and was diagnosed with meningitis and a positive PCR test for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Experts say the meningitis is highly likely caused by new coronary pneumonia. When the man woke up, he found that his memory of recent 1 or 2 years had been lost. The attending doctor, Yukio Mori, said it was the new coronary pneumonia virus invaded the central nervous system. Last month, a 56-year-old new coronary patient was confirmed to have a new coronavirus in CSF; this is rare, but it had occurred many times worldwide. As for why patients lose memory, experts believe this is because the part of the patient’s brain responsible for memory is damaged, leading to memory loss and other sequelae. According to observations of the pathological tissue, many infected people’s brain parts have pathological changes: brain tissue congestion, edema, and partial neuronal degeneration. There are also many asymptomatic infections with blood clots into the cerebrovascular vessels, which eventually lead to a stroke. Reference news reported a week ago, the United States media said that medical staff announced on the 22nd, the new coronavirus appears to have caused the patients in their 30s and 40s were not serious sick but had sudden stroke.

• Damage to the heart: The damage caused by the new coronavirus to the patient’s heart is not easy to ignore. A 48-year-old patient from east London has revealed that her new coronary pneumonia has left her with severe heart damage. “I’ve been feeling cold for nine weeks after the cure, and then the doctor told me that I had congestive cardiomyopathy (a weakened heart function, a larger heart cavity, a heart that could not pump enough blood)” and that it might be the case for the rest of my life, and that most people would slowly get better, but some people might have to install pacemakers or even need a heart transplant. Dr. James Russell, a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, and several other researchers found that in the study of 8,000 patients with new coronary pneumonia, more than half of the patients with severe heart damage and even caused death. Dr Russell said complications were more severe in new corona patients who had been on an ICU, especially those who had been on a ventilator. They are likely to have problems with the lungs, brain, heart, and muscles in the future.

“Assisted breathing is a double-edged sword”: Not long ago, “Black-faced doctor”     Hu Weifeng also developed cerebral hemorrhage symptoms after using assisted breathing equipment. His attending doctor noted that “going to ECMO is a matter of ninety percent chance of deaths.” ‘

Some people may ask, patients are cured, why there will be sequelae? In fact, from a medical point of view, to assess whether a disease will produce sequelae after treatment, generally after the recovery of the disease more than 6 months to start. Because the human body has a certain degree of self-healing, many times the disease caused by the damage to the body organs, after the elimination of pathological factors, the body can self-repair, and then return to normal without any sequelae. But according to this standard to assess the new corona pneumonia, the time is not enough. After all, from its outbreak is still less than half a year, coupled with the human new coronavirus is still in a gradual understanding of the process, the unexpected after-effects are also reasonable.

Finally, dealing with this new virus, cure does not mean that the success of treatment, whether there will be serious complications left over will take time to verify. The battle between humans and viruses is far from over… Now is not the time to take it lightly.

Dr. QC Zhang translated from a Chinese source. 6/11/2020