RESEARCH IS UNDERWAY TO ASSESS THE PANDEMIC’S LONG-TERM EFFECTS AND FIND WAYS TO PREVENT AND TREAT LASTING SYMPTOMS.
By May she felt well enough to stroll around the neighborhood, gradually increasing the distance she walked. She expected a full recovery. But now, more than six months after she fell ill, walking up even a short hill can exhaust her, and she wonders if she will ever again feel like the athletic, energetic, healthy woman she was before the novel coronavirus turned her life into a roller coaster of recurring illness despite no evidence of an active infection.
At the start of the pandemic, doctors were necessarily focused on combating the acute effects of COVID-19 and saving lives, but research is now underway to assess its long-term effects and find ways to prevent and treat lasting symptoms. There is increasing concern that the pandemic will result in “a significant surge of people battling lasting illnesses and disabilities,” the journal Nature reported.
One fact already known: A person need not have had severe disease to experience symptoms that persist for months and, time will tell, possibly for years. Even some people who had mild COVID-19 infections continue to experience symptoms long after recovering from the acute illness. The COVID-19 virus can damage the lungs, heart and brain, increasing the risk of persistent health problems. According to the Mayo experts, “Imaging tests taken months after recovery from COVID-19 have shown lasting damage to the heart muscle, even in people who had only mild COVID-19 symptoms.” The illness can cause very small blood clots that can block capillaries in the heart and permanently injure the heart muscle. The disease can also weaken blood vessels and injure the kidneys and liver.
Brain-related effects of an active COVID-19 infection can include strokes, seizures and a temporary paralysis called Guillain-Barré syndrome. Many COVID-19 patients lose their sense of smell and taste during the acute illness, but for some this neurological effect persisted for months after they had otherwise recovered. And questions remain whether the viral infection also will raise the risk of later developing neurological problems like Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease.