Neurological disorders, cardiothoracic disorders, smell and taste disorders… It is now estimated that 15% of people who have contracted the coronavirus are likely to see certain symptoms persist over time. If what is now called “Covid long” is still poorly understood, more and more research is being carried out to understand the mechanisms behind this evolution of symptoms. The latest, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine and relayed by The Guardian, reveals the deleterious effects of Covid on the brains of patients hospitalized as a result of this virus. Indeed, the researchers observed persistent cognitive decline in many of them, depending on the severity of their case.
To reach this conclusion, David Menon, a professor at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the study, and his colleagues examined the results of cognitive tests taken by 46 patients, an average of six months following their admission to the hospital. ‘Addenbrooke in Cambridge between March and July 2020. Of these, 16 had been placed on ventilators. The results were then compared with those of nearly 66,000 people from the general British population.
The scientists found that the hospitalized patients performed significantly worse ‘on tests of verbal analogical reasoning, which assess an individual’s ability to recognize relationships between ideas and to think methodically’. Their study also shed light on slower information processing in said patients. According to their conclusions, the deficit observed six months following a severe form was equivalent to the cognitive loss generally observed in a person between their 50s and their 70s, i.e. 20 years of aging. This corresponds to a loss of 10 IQ points.
But how to explain such significant cognitive damage? According to the research team, the reasons are multiple. A severe infection due to Covid-19 would first reduce the blood supply to the brain. “A blockage of blood vessels and microscopic bleeding caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as damage triggered by an overactive immune system” might also be the cause of this cognitive decline.
Added to this are the conclusions of previous studies on the long Covid which suggest that following a severe infection, glucose is used less efficiently “in the part of the brain responsible for attention, complex problem solving and memory,” according to science magazine New Scientist, reported by Slate.
This research needs to be deepened in order to know if this deficit is maintained over time or if it is only a phase of convalescence. Nevertheless, the potential occurrence of these disorders needs to be known to health professionals for better management. “The trials we can conduct will allow us to understand the underlying mechanisms and produce effective treatments to prevent this from happening and perhaps treat it later,” says the study’s lead author, David Menon, who also specifies, in the columns of the Guardian, that “if a person is completely vaccinated, the disease will be less trying and all of its symptoms will be reduced”.
In Morocco, the number of first-timers reached 24,809,721, that of people who received two doses amounted to 23,288,828, while 6,277,583 people had three injections of the vaccine.
A total of 41 new cases of infection with the new coronavirus (Covid-19) and 22 recoveries have also been recorded in Morocco in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection. The new infection toll brings the total number of contaminations since the first case reported in Morocco on March 02, 2020 to 1,165,247, while the number of recovered people has increased to 1,148,878, i.e. a recovery rate of 98, 6%.
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