{"id":109850,"date":"2020-12-18T17:18:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-19T00:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=109850"},"modified":"2020-12-18T17:18:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T00:18:08","slug":"covid-19-coronavirus-long-term-effects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/12\/18\/covid-19-coronavirus-long-term-effects\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 (coronavirus): Long-term effects"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Mayo Clinic<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">COVID-19 (coronavirus): Long-term effects<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>COVID-19 symptoms can sometimes persist for months. The virus can damage the lungs, heart and brain, which increases the risk of long-term health problems.<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/about-this-site\/welcome\">By Mayo Clinic Staff<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most people who have coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) recover completely within a few weeks. But some people \u2014 even those who had mild versions of the disease \u2014 continue to experience symptoms after their initial recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These people sometimes describe themselves as &#8220;long haulers&#8221; and the condition has been called post-<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;syndrome or &#8220;long&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Older people and people with many serious medical conditions are the most likely to experience lingering&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;symptoms, but even young, otherwise healthy people can feel unwell for weeks to months after infection. The most common signs and symptoms that linger over time include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Fatigue<\/li><li>Shortness of breath<\/li><li>Cough<\/li><li>Joint pain<\/li><li>Chest pain<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Other long-term signs and symptoms may include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Muscle pain or headache<\/li><li>Fast or pounding heartbeat<\/li><li>Loss of smell or taste<\/li><li>Memory, concentration or sleep problems<\/li><li>Rash or hair loss<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"\" height=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yXD4pLrmLHY?rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:%2F%2Fwww.mayoclinic.org\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Video: Long-term symptoms, complications of COVID-19<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Organ damage caused by COVID-19<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Although&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;is seen as a disease that primarily affects the lungs, it can damage many other organs as well. This organ damage may increase the risk of long-term health problems. Organs that may be affected by&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Heart.<\/strong>&nbsp;Imaging tests taken months after recovery from&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;have shown lasting damage to the heart muscle, even in people who experienced only mild&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;symptoms. This may increase the risk of heart failure or other heart complications in the future.<\/li><li><strong>Lungs.<\/strong>&nbsp;The type of pneumonia often associated with&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;can cause long-standing damage to the tiny air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs. The resulting scar tissue can lead to long-term breathing problems.<\/li><li><strong>Brain.<\/strong>&nbsp;Even in young people,&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;can cause strokes, seizures and Guillain-Barre syndrome \u2014 a condition that causes temporary paralysis.&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;may also increase the risk of developing Parkinson&#8217;s disease and Alzheimer&#8217;s disease.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Blood clots and blood vessel problems<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;can make blood cells more likely to clump up and form clots. While large clots can cause heart attacks and strokes, much of the heart damage caused by&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;is believed to stem from very small clots that block tiny blood vessels (capillaries) in the heart muscle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other parts of the body affected by blood clots include the lungs, legs, liver and kidneys.&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;can also weaken blood vessels and cause them to leak, which contributes to potentially long-lasting problems with the liver and kidneys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Problems with mood and fatigue<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>People who have severe symptoms of&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;often have to be treated in a hospital&#8217;s intensive care unit, with mechanical assistance such as ventilators to breathe. Simply surviving this experience can make a person more likely to later develop post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because it&#8217;s difficult to predict long-term outcomes from the new&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;virus, scientists are looking at the long-term effects seen in related viruses, such as the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many people who have recovered from&nbsp;<abbr title=\"severe acute respiratory syndrome\">SARS<\/abbr>&nbsp;have gone on to develop chronic fatigue syndrome, a complex disorder characterized by extreme fatigue that worsens with physical or mental activity, but doesn&#8217;t improve with rest. The same may be true for people who have had&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Many long-term COVID-19 effects still unknown<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Much is still unknown about how&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;will affect people over time. However, researchers recommend that doctors closely monitor people who have had&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;to see how their organs are functioning after recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many large medical centers are opening specialized clinics to provide care for people who have persistent symptoms or related illnesses after they recover from&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s important to remember that most people who have&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;recover quickly. But the potentially long-lasting problems from&nbsp;<abbr title=\"coronavirus disease 2019\">COVID-19<\/abbr>&nbsp;make it even more important to reduce the spread of the disease by following precautions such as wearing masks, avoiding crowds and keeping hands clean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Mayo Clinic COVID-19 (coronavirus): Long-term effects COVID-19 symptoms can sometimes persist for months. The virus can damage the lungs, heart and brain, which increases the risk of long-term health problems.By Mayo Clinic Staff Most people who have coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) recover completely within a few weeks. But some people \u2014 even those who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}