Covid-19 leaves behind long detectable changes in the blood of patients, very similar to a fingerprint.
The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 affects different people in different ways. Majority of infected people (80 per cent) develop mild to moderate illness, while the course of infection is severe in about 14 per cent patients and critical in 5 per cent of cases, as per research data. Mild COVID-19 symptoms can vary widely in different people, ranging from fever, cough to pneumonia and gastrointestinal problems.
There are actually 'seven forms of disease in mild Covid-19,' with different symptoms, according to researchers from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. They have identified seven groups of symptoms which are:
For the study, the research team examined convalescents and 98 healthy individuals in the control group.
One interesting finding was that loss of smell and taste predominantly affects individuals with a 'young immune system', which is measured by the number of immune cells (T lymphocytes) that have recently emigrated from the thymus gland.
Also, the scientists found that Covid-19 leaves behind long detectable changes in the blood of patients, very similar to a fingerprint.
These findings could play a significant role in the treatment of patients and in the development of a potent vaccine since we now have access to promising biomarkers and can perform even better monitoring, noted the authors of the study published in the journal Allergy.
Various studies have shown that even mild symptoms of COVID-19 can lead to irreversible damage to the vital organs of the body.
Usually people with severe symptoms of COVID-19 suffer from pneumonia, which happens when the lungs become devoid of oxygen and fluid fills in. This can further lead to a potentially fatal condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) the lungs become severely inflamed.
In people with mild symptoms, COVID-19 virus impairs the lung capacity as they tend to breathe faster when they feel breathless. Reports say some patients also developed silent hypoxia, i.e. the oxygen levels plummet without any noticeable symptoms. In such cases, the patients may need to undergo long-stretched therapy sessions to recover from this damage.
Heart damage due to COVID-19 was also seen in people with mild symptoms. The coronavirus can cause inflammation of the heart which can further lead to myocarditis, a condition where the muscles of the heart get inflamed, reducing the ability of the heart to pump.
Doctors have warned that patients with mild or moderate symptoms may also suffer from some sort of brain damage. A study published in Annals of Internal Medicine in May 2020 reported that 87% of patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 symptoms lost their sense of smell. While some experts believed that it could be due to some inflammation or nasal congestion, others suggest damage to the nerves of the brain that help in processing scent.
Another study published in the journal JAMA found that the virus had invaded some parts of the brain of a COVID-19 patient who lost her sense of smell.
With inputs from IANS
