Updated April 23, 2020, 3:42 p.m.
What harm can the coronavirus cause in the human body? So far, the question has remained largely unanswered. Now post-mortem surveys provide further insights.
Medical professionals worldwide are trying to understand how dangerous that is Corona virus for humans is: what damage it does to the body, what clinical picture causes COVID-19.
“Apart from the symptoms treated, we still do not know enough about what the virus actually does in the body,” said Andreas Rosenwald, director of the Pathological Institute at the University of Würzburg, recently the “Süddeutsche Zeitung“.
Laypeople could now assume that examinations of COVID-19 deceased should bring insights – if more than 4,000 People in Germany died as a result of the viral disease, there should have been autopsies accordingly. But this is not the case.
Autopsies in connection with COVID-19 deceased have so far been rather rare in Germany. That should be due to a – now withdrawn – recommendation from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), according to which doctors were warned against an examination of COVID-19 deceased in order to protect them from possible infection.
Report: None of the deceased was without previous illness
One who ignored the warning is Klaus Püschel. He is a Hamburg medical doctor – and has probably so far autopsied as many COVID-19 deceased as no one else in Germany.
In a report available to the “Süddeutsche”, NDR and WDR, he speaks of 65 post-mortems until April 11. In the meantime, there are already more than 100. His finding: None of the deceased was without previous illness. Püschel does not claim to be complete.
It also says that Püschel’s findings coincide with those of Swiss doctors. Most of the deceased were sick with their hearts. 55 of the 61 examined in Hamburg already had high blood pressure, a heart attack, arteriosclerosis or other heart failure.
46 autopsies had previous lung disease. 28 had damage to other organs such as kidneys, liver or transplant organs. 16 suffered from dementia, others already had cancer, severe overweight or diabetes, the report said.
DGN: Corona viruses can enter the brain
There are only a few studies of COVID-19 death autopsies worldwide. One of them comes from China. Doctors at Beijing University Clinic want to find out that virus not only attacks the lungs, but also the immune system and other organs. At least that’s the result of 29 autopsies.
In Japan, a man suffered meningitis and meningitis: SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in the nerve water, but the nasopharynx smear was negative. “Due to the new data situation, there is growing evidence that COVID-19 is not just a pneumological clinical picture,” shared the German Society for Neurology (DGN) with.
This means that the coronaviruses can also penetrate the brain, especially the brain stem, wrote the DGN. “This could explain why, in addition to the typical symptoms of COVID-19 diseases, fever, sore throat and cough – by the way in some cases also without any respiratory complaints – neurological symptoms such as loss of smell and taste, headache, tiredness, nausea, Vomiting and loss of consciousness occur. “
COVID-19 findings: can the heart also be damaged?
The disease not only affects the brain, it may also cause heart damage that could even lead to cardiac arrest, reports the Washington Post, citing healthcare workers in China and New York. The doctors want to have seen inflammation of the heart muscle and irregular heart rhythms – even in patients without existing heart diseases.
During first Findings after post-mortem examination of COVID-19– Walking the dead around the world, the RKI withdrew its recommendation to avoid post-mortems. “The original recommendation was not to not autopsy, but to limit this to the bare minimum,” said RKI Vice President Lars Schaade on Tuesday. “Of course it is correct, especially when the disease is new, to autopsy as much as possible, under the appropriate safety precautions.
Püschel autopsied a lot – and noted that 61 of the 65 deceased had COVID-19 as the cause of death. The legal doctor notes in the “Focus“But to:” Even if it sounds hard, many would have died in the course of this year anyway “.
All of these people suffered from serious previous illnesses, says Püschel. In the remaining four, the viral disease was not the cause of death.
Also read: World Medical President: Duty for scarves and scarves is “ridiculous”
Sources used:
- sueddeutsche.de: What the autopsies of the virus victims reveal
- Press release German Society for Neurology: SARS-CoV-2 can cause meningitis
- advisory.com: It’s not just solutions: COVID-19 may damage the heart, brain, and kidneys
- focus.de: Legal doctor: “COVID-19 is a serious but not a particularly dangerous illness”
Unlike in the other Scandinavian countries and in large parts of Europe, the Swedish government does not intervene in the everyday life of its citizens with extremely strict measures. But that has its price.
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