Study: Coronavirus could also damage the nervous system – panorama

“It is important that the authors found that the patients they examined with some of the most common specific symptoms, including odor or taste disorders and muscle disorders, tended to have these symptoms at the beginning of their clinical course,” said the three neurologists. This differs significantly from the neurological manifestations of Sars infections in 2002/2003, which were also triggered by a coronavirus.

In fact, Sars and Mers – also a coronavirus disease – are known to cause damage to the nervous system. For both infections it has been experimentally proven that the virus can enter the brain via the olfactory nerves in the nasal cavity.

In the case of Covid-19, it is now being discussed whether respiratory arrest could also be the result of neurological damage – for example, inflammation of the brain stem, where the control for the cardiovascular system and the respiratory tract is also located. From a neurological point of view, it is important to clarify how many of the serious illnesses are triggered by the involvement of the central nervous system, notes Peter Berlit, general secretary of the German Society for Neurology.

In view of the current Chinese study, physicians Pleasure, Green and Josephson see neurologists in their future “at the forefront of the pandemic”. The authors of the study consider it particularly important that doctors consider a Covid-19 infection in patients with corresponding neurological symptoms “in order to avoid a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis and to prevent further transmission”.

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