2024-10-04 12:00:14
People get tested in Bangkok, Thailand, September 1, 2021. SAKCHAI LALIT / AP
These are two recent studies which warn, once again, of the risk of prolonged cognitive deficit, one year after contracting Covid-19. The first, published at the beginning of October in the journal The Lancetconcerns young and healthy subjects who have been voluntarily infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and who have developed mild Covid. The second, published on September 23 in the newspaper Nature Medicinefollowed people, aged on average 54, who had been hospitalized for severe Covid.
In both cases, the infection appears to have prolonged impairment of cognitive faculties, to a slight degree in young people, and more pronounced in older people. “Covid-19 is not always a one shot which we get rid of completely: the infection can cause prolonged cognitive after-effects, even mild ones very probably”summarizes Mahmoud Zureik, professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin (Yvelines).
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These are not, in truth, the first studies to warn about the phenomenon. SARS-CoV-2 certainly shows a strong tropism for the respiratory tract (nose, throat and lungs), but it can also affect other organs: the microvessels, the heart, the kidneys, the digestive system… and the brain, SO. But here, it is not a question of examining neurological complications occurring during severe acute phases of the disease : stroke, delirium or confusion, neuromuscular disorders, etc.
“Worrying result”
The study published by The Lancet does not, however, speak of “long Covid” concerning young patients monitored, as the cognitive disorders – objectively measurable – are mild. Moreover, if the tests highlight these impairments, the patients do not perceive them.
William Trender and colleagues at Imperial College and King’s College, London, recruited thirty-four volunteer participants, aged 18 to 30, who were given a very low dose of SARS-CoV-2 (original strain). was injected. Only eighteen of them were infected, and the investigators were able to compare the infected group to the uninfected group. They were also able to assess cognitive functions before and after infection, with each volunteer being their own control. “The result is worrying, because these healthy young people show mild cognitive deficits, persisting at least one year after infection”summarizes Lisa Chakrabarti, of the Pasteur Institute, in Paris. “This deterioration is small, but significant. It is all the more important as the viral load is high”adds Mr. Zureik.
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