Even though recovery of over 6 lakh people from COVID-19 in India is seen as a positive sign, expert, however, say that the process of recovery from the infection is not simple but it is long and arduous.
Experts say that coronavirus infection wreak havoc on the immune system, apart from physical and neurological symptoms being witnessed in patients after recovery.
“Extreme fatigue, breathlessness and tiredness are the most common post-recovery problems faced by the patients,” experts say.
Experts are of the opinion that after recovery, it can take four to six weeks for the patient to go back to normalcy.
Moreover, doctors in various hospitals, who have treated Covid-19 patients, have also witnessed some neurological effects, both short-term and long term, in some rare cases of patients where the virus has affected the brain.
Apart from becoming depressed, some patients had fear in their minds.
Apart from the lung, the COVID-19 infection also affects other organs of the body such as the heart, the brain, intestine and kidney.
“It is leading to endotheliitis, affecting the inner lining of the blood vessels, causing muscle and body ache,” reported India Today quoting Dr Dhiren Gupta, senior consultant and paediatric intensivist at Sir Gangaram Hospital.
“These patients are developing strokes and myocardial infarction or mild form of heart attacks,” Dr Gupta added.
“Thrombosis or formation of a blood clot is also being witnessed in patients of COVID-19. Such patients will require thrombotic therapy. Chronic or severe headaches are being reported by the patients,” he added.
It may be mentioned here that endotheliitis is an immune response within the endothelium in blood vessels, in which they become inflamed.
The condition can cause oedema of the surrounding tissue, including the stroma, and can cause irritation and pain.
However, experts also caution that three months is less time to define long term symptoms and these symptoms are unusual and are being seen in only rare cases.