Would Coronavirus Affect the Brain? In any case, researchers from University College London describe in a publication published in the scientific journal Brain several cases of patients with Covid-19 presenting a rare cerebral inflammation. The details.
The consequences of the coronavirus on people who contract it and who have been cured are not yet fully known. According to English doctors, several cases of different brain damage have been observed in some patients with Covid-19. Indeed, researchers from University College London describe in a publication published in the scientific journal Brain several cases of patients with Covid-19 with rare brain inflammation. SARS-CoV-2 is therefore the trigger for an intense inflammatory reaction that damages several organs. According to Dr. Michael Zandi, more people with neurological conditions, such as brain inflammation, which are not always correlated with the severity of respiratory symptoms has been identified. Note that this study was carried out on 43 patients aged 16 to 65, treated at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.
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According to the study authors, coronavirus infection was proven for 29 of them, and for the others, it was not formally confirmed but remains likely for 8 people or possible for 6 people. They also indicate that among the brain conditions identified in this group, is theacute encephalomyelitis disseminated or EMAD. “Usually London doctors treat only one patient each month for this condition, but cases have increased with the coronavirus epidemic. Out of 43 cases considered in the study, 12 suffer from EMAD ”, reveals the study. We also learn that there was a patient who was admitted to hospital with the only symptom, a neurological condition and no acute respiratory syndrome, but which was subsequently tested positive for coronavirus. Recall that EMAD is known to appear 2 to 30 days after a viral infection. However, the study indicates that coronavirus would not directly attack the brain and the precise mechanisms that lead to the onset of EMAD after coronavirus infection still need to be elucidated.
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It should be noted that the other patients considered present equally worrying problems. In fact, ten of them suffered from transient encephalopathy accompanied, for certain, by episodes of delirium. We note that eight others had a stroke and the last eight presented symptoms comparable to Guillain-Barré syndrome. “This is yet another new avenue to explore among the already long list of consequences on the organism of Covid-19, a disease that continues to become more complex. More studies will be needed to understand the long-term neurological consequences of SARS-Cov-2 infection, “said the study.
Note that other studies increasingly confirm the trail of brain inflammation. Indeed, in the journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA), we learn that doctors reported last week that 36% of 214 Chinese patients had neurological symptoms, ranging from loss of smell to nerve pain , and up to seizures and strokes. Similarly, in the New England Journal of Medecine, the most highly rated American medical journal, French doctors in Strasbourg described that more than half of 58 ICU patients were confused or agitated and that brain scanners revealed possible inflammations.
We learn that virologists are not completely surprised that the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, can affect the brain and nervous system, since this link has been observed with other viruses, in particular the AIDS virus, (HIV ). We learn that to unravel these mysteries, Jennifer Frontera, who teaches at the New York University School of Medicine, is collaborating on an international research project aimed at standardizing data collection. Note that his own team has documented cases of seizures in Covid-19 patients who never had them before falling ill. It should also be noted that the researchers also observed tiny cerebral hemorrhages described as unprecedented. “We see many patients in states of confusion,” assured AFP Rohan Arora, neurologist at the Long Island Jewish Forest Hills Hospital. According to him, 40% of survivors of the coronavirus are affected. “It is not known whether these disorders are lasting,” he concludes.
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