2024-02-24 14:19:48
[NTD News, Beijing time, February 24, 2024]Infection with the CCP virus (COVID-19) will cause ongoing health problems. Some patients may suffer damage to organs such as the heart, kidneys, skin, and brain, and may also develop inflammation and immunity. System problems. A British girl suffered from mental illness and did not even recognize her mother.
In March 2020, 24-year-old Chantelle Christine moved from her London apartment back to her parents’ home in Glasgow, just as the UK began its first epidemic lockdown.
Healthy, enterprising Christine was working as a strategist at a financial technology company when she began experiencing “erratic and irrational thoughts.” Within a few days, her personality and behavior changed dramatically.
Her boss first raised concerns following he noticed that Kristen was taking too much of her life, even while emailing clients in the middle of the night. Shortly therefollowing, Kristen began to hallucinate and show symptoms of psychosis.
She once thought her mother was former Prime Minister Johnson. Seeing her mother’s thin blond hair, she thought she was at the former Prime Minister’s home. Her mental state continued to deteriorate until she was “completely out of control.”
On April 1, her parents realized that their daughter had gone “completely crazy”. They were worried and decided to call NHS 111. The ambulance crew who arrived initially thought Christine had overdosed and rushed her to the emergency room.
After it was determined that Christine was in a “psychotic” state, she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital in Paisley, where she was monitored for three days. On the way to the ward, she became even more unwell, and she suddenly mightn’t recognize her parents or even her own reflection.
“I remember thinking I might be my grandma. Then I asked the nurse if I was a man or a woman,” Kristen, now 28, told The Sun.
She was convinced that the nurse had kidnapped her and was trying to kill her. When she spoke to her parents on the phone, she would tell them “the nurse came to her with a knife.” She acted aggressively toward the nurse, which she said was “completely out of character for her.”
Fortunately, a psychiatrist quickly recognized that her symptoms were viral encephalitis—an inflammation of the brain. Subsequent tests confirmed his diagnosis.
Professor Tom Solomon, a neuroscientist and director of the Institute of Epidemiology at the University of Liverpool, said it was not uncommon for symptoms caused by encephalitis to be mistaken for mental illness.
“Encephalitis can sometimes cause strange behavior, delusions and hallucinations, which are also symptoms of psychosis,” he said. “Doctors can usually tell the difference, but sometimes people with encephalitis are misdiagnosed as psychotic.”
He added that if treatment is delayed by days due to misdiagnosis, patients might suffer avoidable brain damage and possibly death. Encephalitis can also sometimes cause memory problems similar to dementia.
Doctors believe Kristen contracted the COVID virus first and then developed encephalitis a few weeks later. However, no tests were performed when she was first admitted to the hospital, so doctors were unable to determine that the cause of her illness was the COVID virus.
According to the British non-profit organization Encephalitis International, there are up to 6,000 cases of encephalitis in the UK each year, and there may be hundreds of thousands worldwide. This means it is more common than bacterial meningitis, as it is commonly known.
However, the organization’s latest research shows that more than two-thirds of Britons have never heard of encephalitis. Depending on the type, encephalitis has a mortality rate of up to 40%, even with treatment.
Four years later, Christine is still on the road to recovery, suffering bouts of encephalitis and later developing poor mental health and fatigue. Over time, her condition gradually improved. Currently, she is also working as a volunteer at “Encephalitis International” to help more people.
(Comprehensive reporting by reporter Li Zhaoxi/Editor: Lin Qing)
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