We will have many more cases of long Covid. Because if it is true that with Delta there were more consequences for months if not years, the contagiousness of Omicron – in particular of the variants that are fueling the resumption of infections, BA.4 and BA.5 – is such that it can in any case lead to a significant increase in the syndromes resulting from the infection. That is to the persist for months of symptoms related to the disease, often even in those who have not experienced it in a severe form. An English survey published on The Lancet accounted for by the Corriere della Sera and in which they have been confronted patients with long Covid after infection with the Delta variant or with Omicron of Sars-CoV-2.
“The UK analysis confirms our concerns, both in terms of individual consequences of the long Covid both of social repercussionsand appears to coincide with a report on the subject just prepared by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei “he explained to Courier the professor Alberto Mantovani, scientific director of the Humanitas Institute of Milan and first signatory of the document. In the long interview, the most famous Italian scientist explains, for example, that already in the German Epiloc study, 20% of people between 18 and 25 years old “had reported at least a moderate impairment of their state of health and working capacity after an acute infection” . But other similar surveys, again British, speak of disorders still present in 20% of cases after five weeks and in 10% after three months. Some Chinese evidence – we talked about it here – even refers to a two-year period. The most common symptoms are pains And exhaustion but they can involve lungs and bronchi, nervous system, kidney, intestine and metabolic functions. But one of the most serious consequences that has recently emerged is that on heart and blood vesselsdue to the formation of circulating microthrombi.
THE vaccines they also protect us from long Covid, were it not because they avoid serious consequences during the syndrome and from even worse aftermaths, but much remains to be really understood about medium term consequences of the infection: “However, some interesting progress has been made in understanding the factors that may be at its origin – adds Mantovani – if the first is the health state general starting point of those who get infected, there are others that come into play. One is there silent persistence, for example in the intestine or in the nervous system, of the virus, which can awaken and / or trigger immune reactions. Another role can be played there reactivation of other dormant viruses within us, such as Epstein-Barr or Cytomegalovirus. Finally there are indications of deviations of the immune response, viz autoimmune phenomena, induced by Sars-CoV-2. In the meantime, some biomarkers of Long Covid gravity are beginning to be identified, such as cytokines, interferons and Ptx3, a molecule discovered for the first time by us ».
Long Covid, still symptoms two years after hospitalization for the first infected
Long Covid, more than one in five people can develop it
Source: Vanity Fair
