Not just lungs and heart: the infection caused by the coronavirus SarsCoV2 is a systemic disease affecting the whole organism, also damaging blood vessels, kidneys, intestines, eyes and brain, in the short and long term. This feature, which has been known for months, finds new confirmation. A team of researchers from Yale University, in fact, found that the virus is capable of triggering serious and potentially fatal brain disorders even in patients with mild or recovering symptoms. SARS-CoV-2 can hijack brain cells to replicate, causing significant injury to the infected and surrounding cells. British scientists now launch thestroke alarm, unusually more common among young people. The studio, whose results were published on the pages of the journal Brain, has highlighted complications ranging from “simple” brain inflammation to delirium and stroke.
Patients examined by scientists revealed an increase in cases of Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (Adem). Many subjects, although in good health, have suddenly had an inflammation of the central nervous system. In some cases i sufferers have developed a brain disease with delirium or psychosis, while others have had strokes or peripheral nerve problems (sindrome di Guillain-Barré). 5 percent of the subjects then had an unfavorable course, till death. “We are seeing things in the way coronavirus affects the brain – commented Dr. Michael Zandi, senior author of the study and consultant at University College London Hospitals NHS – that we have never seen before with other viruses.”
Experts point out the limitations of their own study. At the moment, in fact, we have not been able to classify the full range of brain disorders attributable to the coronavirus. However, it is clear that SarsCoV2 is more dangerous than assumed to date. We may be facing an epidemic within an epidemic, not unlike what happened with the flu of 1918 when, more or less 1 million people, developed brain diseases, even important ones. “It would be worrying – concluded Zandi – if there was a hidden epidemic after the Covid-19 pandemic, but at the moment it is too early for us to know what will happen in the coming years. When such a large pandemic affects such a large number of the population we must be careful ”.
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