Prof. H. Ardeschir Ghofrani, Director of the Pneumology Department at the Kerckhoff Clinic Bad Nauheim, and his team not only take care of acute corona cases, but also of secondary diseases.
Difficulty breathing, fatigue, numbness in the legs, impaired memory. Some people who have had Corona suffer from the consequences for weeks and months after they have actually survived the disease.
The Kerckhoff Clinic in Bad Nauheim looks after many of these patients. As a level 1 hospital, it has large, separate intensive care units and appropriate equipment, for example for patient ventilation. “Medicine is currently in a learning process in which we collect and evaluate data together with many scientists and colleagues,” says Prof. H. Ardeschir Ghofrani, the medical director of the Kerckhoff Clinic. The only thing that is clear is that there are these complications. But what is the cause?
A 68-year-old patient describes how he fared after his corona illness. “Corona has left its mark. Not only on the lungs. The thighs no longer react and they hurt. Three fingers on my right hand are numb. In addition, I am constantly out of breath.”
It is still unclear whether the long-term consequences are related to the severity of the disease, says Prof. Ghofrani. “There are patients who have gone through an infection and have not noticed it at all, but still develop long-term consequences. And there are patients who are seriously ill and sometimes fatally at risk, who recover surprisingly quickly and are free of consequences. Between these two extremes there is there are various shades. “
An inadequate immune response?
A hypothesis for which Prof. Ghofrani sees little evidence: Covid-19 forms a type of sleeper cells, similar to herpes viruses. Certain virus particles nestle in cells that are not particularly rich in metabolism and dormant in nerve nuclei. In certain situations the outbreak occurs again.
The hypothesis that the secondary symptoms are triggered by the body’s immune reaction to the corona disease is more likely. Prof. Ghofrani explains this hypothesis with an analogy: “A small fire is blazing. Ideally, the body produces a small fire extinguisher that extinguishes it. That would be an adequate immune response. If a small fire is blazing and the body produces a fire-fighting aircraft that can take the whole patient showered with tons of water, then the patient threatens to drown. This is independent of the viral load and is not always directly related to the severity of the disease. “
Corona disease also took a severe course in a 55-year-old patient. She was in the intensive care unit for nine days. She was released 28 days after the positive corona test. “I continued to have breathing problems that only improved very slowly,” reports the 55-year-old. “I’ve also had hair loss and menopausal symptoms that were almost over before that.”
In addition, wavy courses have been found in the long-term effects. Eventually a reverberation until the immune system has regained its balance.
Even if medicine is currently in a phase of collecting and evaluating, the first patterns are emerging, says Prof. Ghofrani.
The long-term effects mainly affect the lungs. Heart and vascular diseases are also increasingly observed. “Heart problems and thromboses account for a large part of the long-term consequences,” says Prof. Ghofrani. This also includes neurological side effects such as odor and taste disorders. “In addition, there are now many patients who have some kind of memory disorder,” says Prof. Ghofrani. In addition, there is exhaustion, which also lasts for weeks and months.
The symptoms
are going to be treated
What can you do? Not too much at the moment, apart from looking for the cause, says Prof. Ghofrani. “We are learning new things by following up our patients and exchanging ideas with other scientists.” It is unlikely that only one cell or only one mediator is responsible for the sequelae.
Until there is clarity, the Kerckhoff Clinic focuses on treating long-term effects on symptoms. In other words, painkillers for joint and limb pain, drugs that help relieve the strain on the heart in the case of cardiac muscle weakness, and oxygen in the case of breathing difficulties. Fortunately, however, the absolute majority of patients get through the infection either symptom-free or with few symptoms and are also spared long-term consequential damage. “Through the collective measures we were able to prevent Germany from being hit worse,” says Prof. Ghofrani. “Fortunately, we have a comparatively low percentage of patients nationwide who have died of Covid-19.” Nevertheless: the virus is a serious opponent. “Adhere to the hygiene rules, keep your distance, wear mouth and nose protection,” says Prof. Ghofrani. “It’s annoying, but it helps to get rid of this virus.”
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