COVID-19 Rehab: Mayo Clinic Warns Long Term Health From COVID-19 Are Real And Affects Also Patients Who Had Mild Symptoms Or Are Asymptomatic
Source: COVID-19 Rehab Aug 11, 2020 4 years, 4 months, 1 week, 5 days, 11 hours, 15 minutes ago
COVID-19 Rehab: Mayo Clinic medical experts are warning that the long term health effects from COVID-19 are varied and real and that both patients and physicians should pay more attention to these and not assume that it is not COVID-19 related when various medical conditions start manifesting.
Although common symptoms of COVID-19, such as cough, fever and shortness of breath, are now widely known many are not aware that certain symptoms and complications may linger long after an initial COVID-19 infection.
Early studies show that the COVID-19 disease attacks more than just the respiratory system, affecting multiple organs with blood clots and inflammation.
Dr Gregory Poland, a COVID-19 expert at Mayo Clinic told Thailand Medical News, "This is a disease that has a number of mysteries involved, compared to the usual respiratory virus. On the one hand, we see very severe but variable manifestations. On the other hand, we see infection without symptoms. We also see a diminution of immunity over time with this coronavirus."
However what's just starting to emerge, according to Dr Poland, is this idea of COVID-19 "long-haulers," which is a term used to describe individuals who develop long-term and ongoing complications.
Dr Poland added, “Doctors are now really seeing a number of reports of individuals who report long-term fatigue, headaches, vertigo and interestingly enough, difficulties with cognition, hair loss, cardiac issues, and diminished cardiorespiratory fitness. And I think what we are going to find out is that a large portion not all, but a large portion of that is likely to relate to the significant cellular-level damage that this novel coronavirus can causes,"
These possible long-term effects can also affect patients who are asymptomatic or have mild cases of COVID-19.
Dr Poland stressed, "I think it is an argument for why we should take this disease so seriously. Individuals who are thinking, especially young people: 'It is a mild disease, you know. I might not even have any symptoms, and I'm over it.' Whoa. The data is suggesting otherwise. There is evidence of myocardial damage, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, decreased ejection fractions, pulmonary scarring and strokes.”
He added, "And then in the more acute phase, extending out for a month or two, has been this really interesting issue of coagulation abnormalities, which have been responsible for both small-vessel and large-vessel arterial and venous occlusions. So this can be a really wicked virus in some individuals.”
He further added, "We're going to see more and more of the longer-term consequences come out, and we're going to need to study those as vigorously as we did the acute symptoms. Catalog them, understand them and then do clinical trials to figure out how best to treat them.”
It must be noted that in certain third world countries including one South-east Asian country that had boasted that it had been able to control the COVID-19 disease effectively when it reality the only reason the country has had a lower impact from COVID-19 had nothing to do with the prowess of its medical industry or its gove
rnment officials but rather due to the fact that the country was fortunately only exposed to the milder SARS-CoV-2 strains hence lots of asymptomatic and mild cases,(many were not even tested and turned away from public hospitals!), there has been reported increases in incidences of strokes and heart failures among young adults in its population but local doctors are still not realizing a possible correlation linking these to the COVID-19 disease.
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