Scientists all over the world are racing to find a cure for coronavirus. However, there's still so much medical health experts do not understand about the virus itself and how it affects the human immune system as patients experience various and sometimes even unique symptoms.
One aspect that continues to puzzle doctors is how seemingly normal, healthy people have lingering COVID-19 symptoms for weeks and even months. Mild cases typically recover within two weeks, according to data by the World Health Organization (WHO), while others suffer for a longer period, referred to as 'long-haulers' or 'long-termers.'
Dr. Ron Elfebein explained that long-haulers 'reported that they still had symptoms - shortness of breath, cough, headache, intermittent fevers, brain fog, trouble concentrating, chest pain, palpitations, things like that - that continued for months and months and months.'
Long-Haulers
From a study in the Netherlands earlier this month, those surveyed with mild cases were found to have long-term effects from the virus even though 85% of them were deemed healthy before getting sick. After at least one month of contracting the virus, only 6% considered themselves healthy.
Angela Aston, a Texan nurse, age 39 said shared that 'the [CDC's] return-to-work guidelines say three days no fever, but those guidelines are not appropriate for me. People freak out if a person with recent COVID-19 has an elevated temperature and wants to be around them. Even if it has been 10 days with no fever.'
Elfenbein continued saying that they don't quite understand the exact science behind all this and 'we don't really understand the pathophysiology why this is continuing to go on.' He pondered if it's attributed to unique immune system responses or perhaps a 'late reactivation of the virus still inside your body' causing the virus to go on and off from time to time.
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Peculiar Symptoms
Another mystery that Swedish medical experts came across in another recent study is the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms, affecting about 12% of patients. Dr. Sravanthi Parasa from the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle analyzed the data of about 4,800 patients where a small percentage reported diarrhea, nausea, and/or vomiting.
The study noted, 'These findings suggest that patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection can present with gastrointestinal symptoms with possible fecal-oral route of transmission due to the presence of viral RNA in stool.' The team concluded these findings from the compilation of 29 studies.
By late May, children infected with coronavirus experienced rare inflammatory symptoms that seemed like a Kawasaki disease copycat. Young patients had irritated eyes, a rash, and swollen lymph nodes, hands, or feet. Until now, pediatric medical experts have not linked Kawasaki disease and COVID-19.
What adds more to the confusion is the inconsistency of tests, such as patients testing negative, then positive, then negative again. Daniel Kuritzkes from the Brigham and Women's Hospital Division of infectious diseases are telling their long-termer patients to not be discouraged by the lingering symptoms. Although medical experts are still exploring the many mysteries of coronavirus symptoms, he said that 'based on what we know about coronaviruses generally, it is very likely that all of these individuals will completely recover.'