People who have contracted COVID-19 but still continue to suffer from related ailments months later have now been deemed “long-haulers.” There are a wide variety of symptoms associated with “Post-Covid-19 Syndrome,” ranging from as mild as fatigue to as serious as permanent kidney damage. Because the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. continues to surge, doctors are expecting many more long-haulers, and are thus working hard to figure out how to treat the strange after-effects.
COVID-19 long-haulers have complained of ailments like shortness of breath, brain fog, debilitating fatigue, and migraines. Others experience concentration issues and short-term memory less. Gastrointestinal issues have also been reported, including loss of appetite, weight loss, nausea, and diarrhea. One patient, a 12-year-old boy who contracted COVID-19 back in March, spontaneously loss one of his front teeth. His mother reported that there was absolutely no blood loss. She was extremely baffled, and when she took it to the Internet, quickly discovered that her son was not the only one who lost a tooth after recovering from the virus.
Some patients have even had to be hospitalized for more serious issues relating to the lungs, liver, and kidneys, and a few have died, even after recovering from only a mild form of the virus.
Research is still limited and doctors are unclear why some patients become long-haulers and some do not. What is clear, though, is that it isn’t old older or otherwise health-compromised patients who are being affected. Many of these patients are in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and had no existing conditions.
Vascular biologist Dr. William Li, who studies the network of blood vessels that connects the organs in our bodies and supplies them with nutrients, believes there is a vascular component to post-covid syndrome. It’s possible, he thinks, that many patients who survived COVID-19 could be walking around with extensive vascular damage in their bodies. He also believes that autoimmunity, inflammation, and neurology are to blame.
Back in March, Dr. Li began studying the lung tissue of patients who died from COVID-19. He says, in some ways, it’s very clear what happens to these patients, especially to their hearts. Not only is their lung tissue utterly destroyed, but the virus also infects the blood vessels in the heart and ruins it.
Dr. Li has also used a special imaging machine that gives more information than a CT scan can offer. In patients who survived COVID-19, he reports seeing extremely worn out blood vessels. Even when patients receive “normal” CT scans, Dr. Li says that the imaging he finds is far from normal.
Dr. Li’s goal right now is to figure out how to get his knowledge out to the larger medical community so that long-haulers who return to their doctors with lingering symptoms don’t get turned away with “normal” results. It seems that many doctors, like Li, just really want to validate these patients concerns, to let them know that what they’re feeling is real.
Unfortunately, doctors are still very much in the dark about this matter. COVID-19 is still too new, and much remains a mystery. The best they can do now is to continue their research, and with many rehabilitation labs popping up around the country, hopefully patients will be able to get answers and some relief from their symptoms. At the very least, they’ll be able to get some acknowledgment from doctors who are striving to learn more about their condition.