Soccer superstar Lionel Messi opens up about his struggles with the long COVID months after being infected in January. “It left an after-effect on me. It left lingering effects in my lungs. I came back and it went like a month and a half without even being able to walk because my lungs were affected.” Messi says. “I came back before I should have and it got worse because I was speeding and it ended up throwing me back. But I couldn’t take it anymore, I wanted to run, train – I wanted to get started. And it ended up getting worse.” Here are five signs you’ve had COVID like Messi, according to experts. Read on – and don’t miss these to protect your health and the health of others Sure signs you already had COVID.
Messi’s particular symptom of Long COVID is not uncommon, doctors say. “Recovery from lung damage takes time”, says lung disease expert Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, MHS. “There’s the initial injury to the lungs, followed by scarring. Over time, the tissue heals, but it can take three months to a year or more for a person’s lung function to return to pre-COVID-19 levels before it can cause symptoms. It’s like a broken leg bone that needs a cast for months and then comes off. No one would expect him to run off immediately with that freshly healed leg bone. As the leg gets stronger and muscle grows back, patients will experience discomfort from this healing. This is what our lungs are going through too!”
COVID-19 can cause bronchitis and pneumonia, sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome, doctors say. “In COVID-19-related bronchitis, this is a problem of an excessive amount of sputum produced in the airways, leading to coughing and chest congestion,” says Dr. Galiatsatos. “The sputum also narrows the airways, making it difficult to breathe. As for bronchitis, patients can get a cough that stays with them for months after the initial infection. This frequent cough and persistent chest congestion can affect the quality of life.”
A recent study shows that post-COVID abnormalities could be caused by microscopic lung damage. “It is the first study to show evidence of lung abnormalities [people with long Covid] who are breathless and where other examinations are unremarkable”, says dr Emily Fraser, consultant at the University Hospitals of Oxford and co-author of the study. “It suggests that the virus is causing some kind of persistent abnormality in the microstructure of the lungs or in the pulmonary vessels.”
Long-term lung damage after infection with the virus could last for years, experts warn. “These patients were never hospitalized and had no acute serious illness when they had their Covid-19 infection,” says Professor Fergus Gleeson, a radiologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and lead investigator on the study. “Some of them have been suffering from their symptoms for a year after contracting Covid-19.”
Staying up to date with immunizations and booster shots can help prevent long-term COVID complications, experts say. “If you haven’t been vaccinated and updated, and certainly if you are in your 50s or 60s or have other serious medical conditions, you should be very concerned.” says Eric Topol, MD, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California. “If you’re fully vaccinated, including a booster shot, you should be fairly confident that if you do get an infection, you won’t get very sick.”
Follow public health principles and help end this pandemic no matter where you live – get vaccinated or boosted as soon as possible; If you live in an area with low vaccination rates, carry an N95 face masknot travelling, maintaining social distancing, avoiding large crowds, not going indoors with people you are not sheltering with (especially in bars), practicing good hand hygiene and protecting your life and the lives of others, not visiting any of these 35 places where you are most likely to contract COVID.
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