Covid-19: Evidence of effects on 'many organ systems', long-term damage
Scientists are only starting to grasp the vast array of health problems caused by the Covid-19 virus, some of which may have lingering effects on patients and health systems for years to come, according to doctors and infectious disease experts.
Besides the respiratory issues that leave patients gasping for breath, the coronavirus attacks many organ systems, in some cases causing catastrophic damage.
"We thought this was only a respiratory virus. Turns out, it goes after the pancreas. It goes after the heart. It goes after the liver, the brain, the kidney and other organs," said Dr Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California.
The broad and diverse manifestations of Covid-19 are somewhat unique, said Dr Sadiya Khan, a cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.
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With influenza, people with underlying heart conditions are also at higher risk of complications, Khan said; What is surprising about this virus is the extent of the complications occurring outside the lungs.
Khan believes there will be a huge healthcare expenditure and burden for individuals who have survived Covid-19.
While much of the focus has been on the minority of patients who experience severe disease, doctors increasingly are looking to the needs of patients who were not sick enough to require hospitalization, but are still suffering months after first becoming infected.
Studies are just getting under way to understand the long-term effects of infection, said Jay Butler, deputy director of infectious diseases at the US Centers for Disease Control on Thursday.
While coronavirus symptoms typically resolve in two or three weeks, an estimated one in 10 experience prolonged symptoms, said Dr Helen Salisbury of the University of Oxford in the British Medical Journal on Tuesday.
Salisbury said many of her patients have normal chest X-rays and no sign of inflammation, but they are still not back to normal.
"If you previously ran five kilometres three times a week and now feel breathless after a single flight of stairs, or if you cough incessantly and are too exhausted to return to work, then the fear that you may never regain your previous health is very real," she wrote.
Khan sees parallels with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Much of the early focus was on deaths.
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