After surviving a corona infection, the chronic fatigue or exhaustion syndrome (CFS for short) could be among the possible long-term consequences. This is increasingly indicated by individual case reports. CFS is a neuroimmunological disease that manifests itself primarily as long-lasting, enormous exhaustion. In addition, other complaints such as sleep disorders, sore throat or muscle pain, concentration disorders and an increased susceptibility to infections can occur.
Also one Italian study suggests CFS as a possible long-term consequence. In total, the further course of 143 patients who had been treated in hospital for corona and were considered recovered according to WHO criteria was examined. Result: 53.1 percent of the people stated that they suffered from persistent fatigue and permanent exhaustion despite the supposed recovery.
Experts fear that chronic fatigue syndrome will increase in the coming months. “There are worrying data from previous Sars and Mers epidemics, after which CFS emerged more frequently,” explains Professor Dr. Carmen Scheibenbogen from the Charité Berlin in the medical journal “Medscape“. CFS often arises as a result of surviving an infectious disease. Therefore, SARS-CoV-2 could now also represent an increased risk. Epidemiological studies also confirm the increase in CFS after newly emerging infectious diseases.
The other possible long-term corona consequences
In addition to the chronic fatigue syndrome, experts fear further long-term consequences in connection with a corona infection. A British study described 153 fates in the journal “The Lancet Psychiatry” at the end of June – without any claim to representativeness. All patients developed complications related to Covid-19 as severe cases in clinics. These included strokes, but also brain infections and even psychoses.
Impaired lung function
If “recovered” is stated in the sample size tables in many German corona statistics, does that mean the patients are fit again? The German Society for Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine (DGP) has doubts. Images from the computer tomograph showed that many patients had more or less severe lung damage, it is said. The Augsburg University Hospital also published pictures after autopsies in July. The lungs of some corona victims looked terrifying – full of holes like a sponge.
The Augsburg doctors came to the conclusion that this damage was not caused by ventilation, but most likely directly by the virus. What does that mean for the living?
“It is believed that there can be long-term effects,” says Blum. “Especially in the area of the lungs.” This is not just about Covid patients who have been on ventilators for a long time. “We then know that there can be scars in the area of the lungs.” The main questions relate in particular to the lighter cases. People who didn’t have to go to the hospital. “This new coronavirus can possibly trigger long-lasting or even permanent consequential damage to the lungs,” says Blum. Specifically, this means: shortness of breath – especially when exerting yourself.
As early as March at the beginning of the pandemic, fear was expressed that lung damage could remain after a Covid-19 infection. Doctors in the hospitals of the metropolis Hong Kong had carried out an examination with twelve already cured patients like the „South China Morning Post“ reported. In two to three of the observed patients there was a change in lung capacity, according to the director of the Center for Infectious Diseases of the Princess Margaret Hospital in Hong Kong, Dr. Owen Tsang Tak-yin. In an official press conference, he reported that some patients have to breathe harder when they run a little faster and there is a drop in lung function of 20 to 30 percent. Lung scans had also shown that a total of nine of the twelve patients suffered organ damage as a result of the virus.
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Cardiovascular disease risk
The Medical Dean of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, Prof. Dr. med. Joachim Thiery in one Interview with the news magazine “Spiegel”, one feared in the long term also negative effects of Covid-19 on the cardiovascular system. He does not rule out that the virus could subsequently also trigger heart diseases, such as a heart attack.
The assumption that the heart could be permanently damaged by the coronavirus is also shared by Andreas Zeiher, President of the German Society for Cardiology. “In inpatients with Covid-19, we see some with violent troponin rashes,” explains the doctor in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung“. This is considered to be a sign of cardiac muscle cell death.
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Strokes caused by effects on the nervous system
There also seems to be a consensus in science that Covid-19 not only affects the lungs, but can also affect the nervous system. Reports of a loss of the sense of smell and taste in corona patients are increasing. Although this should return after a few weeks in most of the sick, the experience with influenza suggests that a permanent loss of the olfactory and taste buds as a result of an infectious disease cannot be completely ruled out. The “Southgerman newspaper“The neurologist Prof. Dr. Peter Berlit, General Secretary of the German Society for Neurology.
Disease courses have also been observed in China and Italy that give reason to believe that Covid-19 could attack the brain. Some corona patients had neurological symptoms such as loss of senses, headaches, dizziness, right through to strokes and cramps.
According to Prof. Thiery from the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, you have to be vigilant about possible long-term effects, especially after a corona recovery. “The excessive inflammation causes severe damage to the inner choroid in some patients, which could trigger micro-clots,” explains the medical professor. Therefore, there may be a risk of a stroke even after surviving Covid 19 disease.
Possible new clinical pictures
But there is a risk that there will be long-term consequences, says Clemens Wendtner, chief physician at the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the Schwabing Clinic in Munich. “Some of the patients will develop problems in the long term. I do think that we are also generating new clinical pictures secondary to Covid-19. “The coronavirus could not only affect the lungs, but ultimately every cell in the body, adds Christoph Spinner from the Klinikum rechts der Isar at the Technical University of Munich. “Covid 19 is undoubtedly a systemic disease.”
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