Most people diagnosed with new coronary pneumonia will recover from acute infection within two weeks, but part of the virus will not disappear from the body of the confirmed person immediately. Now a large study of hospitalized patients shows that the confirmed person will recover following the main symptoms of the new crown disappear. For weeks to months, some patients will still carry residual virus.
Studies have shown that when the new coronavirus stays in the body for more than 14 days, those diagnosed may become sicker, develop insanity, or prolong hospitalization, and even have a higher risk of death than those who clear the virus quickly, according to estimates. , 7.7 million to 23 million people in the United States are now affected by long-term symptoms of the new crown, and such long-term symptoms of the new crown are also known as “long new crown.”
If the confirmed person is not vaccinated or has immunity from previous infection, the new coronavirus will replicate throughout the body and spread through the nose, mouth and intestines, but most of the infected people have the virus in their body when they are initially infected. It peaks in 3 to 6 days, while the immune system clears the pathogen within 10 days, and the virus excreted following this time is basically non-infectious.
Even taking into account the severity of the disease, regardless of whether the patient was intubated or had underlying disease, studies have shown that people with persistently positive PCR tests may be more likely to have a positive test result, said Ayush Batra, a neurologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. more serious condition.
Timothy Henrich, a virologist and immunologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study, said Batra’s research suggests that people with long-term symptoms who are diagnosed may be more severely ill from the virus, but the study did not investigate, Whether this persistent virus directly causes the long-term symptoms of the new crown.
Linda Geng, a physician at Stanford Medical Center, said there are multiple hypotheses regarding the cause of long-term symptoms of the new crown, including the persistence of the virus, and there may be a variety of factors, but it may be different in everyone. Co-director of the Post-Syndrome Clinic, which specializes in treating long-term symptoms of COVID-19.
Persistent virus aggravates COVID-19
Batra’s team observed that some confirmed patients who returned to the hospital still tested positive for the virus four or five weeks following the initial infection, so the team began to conduct related research. The team analyzed 2,518 new crown patients and found that in the first two weeks of diagnosis, 42% of patients were still PCR positive, even following more than 90 days, 12% were still positive, and one patient was still positive following 269 days.
Even patients with no apparent symptoms can carry the virus for months or longer, and in some immunocompromised patients, the virus may not go away for a year, researchers say. After being cleared, 4% of patients with Covid-19 in the chronic Covid-19 infection trial conducted by Stanford University still had the virus’s genetic material (RNA) in the stool 7 months following diagnosis.
Continued shedding of RNA means that there are still reservoirs of viruses in the body, says neuroscientist Michael VanElzakker, who has ties to Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Tufts University, and these reservoirs keep the virus going for a long time. And cause the immune system to behave abnormally, which may lead to long-term symptoms of the new crown.
Batra pointed out that due to various reasons, some patients are unable to clear this virus reservoir, or their immune system reacts abnormally, which eventually leads to these persistent symptoms, which are long-term symptoms of the new crown, but many scientists believe that there is not enough evidence to keep the viral RNA persistent. The presence has been linked to long-term symptoms of COVID-19.
sleeping virus
Multiple studies have shown that viruses or their genetic material are found in the guts of patients 4 months following infection and in the lungs of deceased donors who died more than 100 days following recovery. The virus was found in the appendix and breast tissue of patients at 462 days and 462 days, respectively.
A study by the National Institutes of Health, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that the genetic material of the new coronavirus was present at low levels in multiple organs for more than seven months, but was undetectable in blood.
Kei Sato, a virologist at the University of Tokyo, said that it is not surprising to find viruses that live in human tissues. According to research, the human body often accumulates viruses, such as human herpes virus type 4 (Epstein-Barr), varicella zoster virus As with many dormant herpes viruses, these persistent viruses can only be identified by extensive genetic sequencing.
This means that it is very complicated to prove or refute that the new coronavirus persists and is related to the long-term symptoms of the new crown. For example, following being infected with chickenpox for decades, the latent herpes zoster virus may be re-driven, while the new coronavirus remaining in the human body Viruses can also cause long-term health problems, and Henrich believes that by sneaking into deep tissues, the virus may cause the immune system to enter a dysregulated inflammatory state.
VanElzakker believes that this state of affairs proves that the virus may exist for a long time and reach a precarious truce with the body, but Geng believes that the link between the virus lingering in the body and the long-term symptoms of the new crown requires extensive research, because There is no way to draw strong conclusions regarding the currently proposed mechanism of occurrence.
Clearing long-standing virus may cure long-standing symptoms of COVID-19
According to the preliminary research report of Geng and Henrich’s team, following receiving Pfizer’s oral antiviral drug Paxlovid, the long-term symptoms of the new crown improved, because Paxlovid can prevent the virus from replicating, which is why some experts believe that Paxlovid can prevent the virus from replicating. The reason for the removal of residual virus, but Geng and Henrich both caution that Paxlovid should be used with caution.
Geng said there are some interesting hypotheses regarding the role of Paxlovid in treating long-term symptoms of the new crown, but further research and clinical trials are needed to draw conclusions, such as the FDA warning that Paxlovid is suitable for mild to moderate symptoms within five days of onset. Diagnosed patients and adults with severe risk factors have indeed completed a complete five-day course of treatment, and incorrect use may affect the treatment effect. .
U.S. President Biden directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a national action plan for long-term symptoms of the new crown, so the National Institutes of Health has launched a study to understand, prevent and treat the long-term health effects related to the new crown, At the same time, evidence shows that the new crown vaccine can not only continue to prevent severe disease, but also prevent many long-term symptoms of new crown.
A new study comparing 1.5 million unvaccinated patients with 25,225 vaccinated patients with breakthrough infections found that the vaccine greatly reduced the risk of developing long-term symptoms of Covid-19 28 days following infection, and 90 days following infection. , the vaccine can play a greater protective effect.
Henrich emphasized that although most people will not have long-term symptoms of the new crown, it is difficult to say whether there will be a certain risk, and in the first 10 days of being infected, it is determined that the new crown virus will not stop, and strongly urges the public not to To take COVID-19 seriously is not to take your body seriously.
(Source of the first image:pixabay）