Dr Yousuf Ali Al mulla
Saying that we are living in strange times will be underestimating this year. We are in the last quarter of 2020 in an attempt to survive the COVID-19 disease and its health implications, which reminds us with certainty that it has now passed and we are living in this changing reality.
In fact, we thought it was a virus, it will come and go and we will go back to normal. Unfortunately, sometimes this is not the case, where I could be worried! The media may be talking about the number of cases and the number of deaths and this is a good follow-up, but not many of us are talking about the long-term side effects of COVID-19 on recovered patient!
In fact, even those who did not show symptoms and were young and have recovered ... even in these patients we have seen abnormal changes. Interestingly, immunologists have made speculation that coronavirus patients recovering from inflammation developed long-term symptoms, as a result of their bodies containing parts of the non-infectious COVID-19 genes, leading to an aggressive immune response? Or, perhaps the virus has caused some people’s immune systems to attack and damage some of their organs and tissues.
On other hand, we hear that some patients who were previously in good health are now attending health clinics with shortness of breath, fatigue, decreased tolerance to exercise, decreased sense of taste or smell and new or worsening anxiety or depression for several weeks or even months after gotten infected with COVID-19.
This leads us to remember that clinical symptoms of the disease can range anywhere, from no symptoms at all and perhaps mild symptoms, to pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome, with multiple organ dysfunction and sometimes death. The most important thing is that since the beginning of the pandemic, it has been known that a minority of the infected individuals, who are usually elderly or suffer from previous health conditions, are severely affected and often require hospitalization, even in some cases intensive care.
While more than 80 percent of cases, according to the World Health Organization are mild or asymptomatic and these patients usually recover after two weeks. Given that COVID-19 is a new virus, its long-term consequences are still not well known and hence we can call them the long-term consequences of COVID-19, which was defined as the presence of symptoms that extend beyond three weeks from the initial onset of symptoms. While chronic corona symptoms may extend beyond 12 weeks.
Could these complications be also as a result of direct COVID-19 attack of tissues or deep inflammation in the body with an immune cell storm, in addition to the possibility of formation of very small blood clot (causing heart attacks or strokes), or is it a combination of these factors!
We are right to worry about this, as most of our youth are indifferent to the precautionary measures, believing that they are invincible and unfortunately long-term side effects may easily haunt them for months after exposure to the coronavirus, especially those cases that developed specific complications ending to hospital admission or critical care. Not to mention that if he /she had slight symptoms, there is possibility for some to develop abnormal symptoms that they are not used to, as a result of what mentioned previously.
The sad thing is that the first few months of the pandemic were allocated to prevent the transmission of the disease, but I believe that now we need to give much attention to the long-term effects of coronavirus on our patients, as some recovered people still live with coronavirus attached to them through its long-term effects.
Indeed, among the most common chronic symptoms is fatigue, coughing, shortness of breath, headache, muscle and joint pain, as well as psychological and neurological influences. Therefore, people who were discharged from the intensive care unit need long-term follow-up for any evidence of neurological damage, with possible interventional treatments if necessary.
However, it is better for everyone to remember, just because you caught the virus (with very mild symptoms) and did not enter the hospital, does not necessarily mean that you will not suffer from long-term problems. Even people who test positive, but have not developed symptoms during the course of their illness, might be not immune to the long-term effects. This of course, leads us to ask: How should people facing the long-term effects of COVID-19 be given the time and care they need to recover fully?
At the end, even after we get a vaccine, the disease is likely to affect people’s lives and affect health systems for some time in the future. Off course, here it is a good reminder for all of us to do everything in our power to prevent infection for ourselves and our community, if we want to avoid the long-term or chronic health effects of COVID-19. There is still a lot of unknown about this new virus and you may not realize how lucky you are in your health until it disappears from you.
Dr.Yousuf Ali Al Mulla, Physician, Medical innovator and Writer, can be contacted at: dryusuflmulla@gmail.com for any queries regarding the content of the column
