“We should continue to be careful”: These long-term corona consequences worry experts
Created: 11/30/2022, 12:48 p.m
By: Patrick Huljina
Concerns about a corona infection are decreasing and the virus is losing its terror.
However, some experts are worried about possible long-term effects.
Munich – The corona virus has been with us in Germany for almost three years now.
In everyday life it has now almost become a marginal phenomenon.
There are only a few containment measures left, in Bavaria even the obligation to isolate infected people was abolished in mid-November.
"It is the jump from the pandemic towards normality," said the Bavarian State Chancellery chief Florian Herrmann (CSU).
According to Corona expert Hendrik Streeck, “we are currently in an elusive transition phase from a pandemic to an endemic.” Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) recently warned again of a winter wave.
According to surveys, however, the fear of contracting the corona virus is steadily decreasing in Germany.
The virus is losing its fright.
But experts warn against underestimating it - especially with a view to possible late and long-term consequences.
Long Covid: Long-term health consequences of a corona infection
The long-term health consequences of a corona infection are summarized under the generic term "Long Covid".
They include "impairments to physical, mental and psychological health that limit everyday functionality and quality of life," writes the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) on its website.
The most common symptoms include:
Tiredness, exhaustion and limited resilience (fatigue)
shortness of breath
concentration and memory problems
sleep disorders
muscle weakness and pain
depressive moods and anxiety
Disorders of taste and smell
Corona late effects: increased risk of heart disease
Numerous studies also indicate that there can still be an increased risk of a heart attack, cardiac arrhythmia, cardiac insufficiency or sudden cardiac death for at least a year after the corona infection.
"Even in mild cases of Covid-19, long-term and close monitoring is required to diagnose late cardiovascular complications," write scientists from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in the US and the University of Alexandria in Egypt in a case report.
In it they report on a 58-year-old woman without previous illnesses who had survived her corona infection well.
However, she complained of chest pain on exertion.
Three months after her infection, the woman had acute pain behind her breastbone radiating to her left arm.
The doctors diagnosed a heart attack for which there was no plausible explanation - except for the previous corona infection.
The late and long-term consequences of corona infections are often underestimated.
(Iconic image) © IMAGO/Michael Gstettenbauer
Heart disease as a late consequence: "There is no clinical picture that does not occur more frequently"
Further comparative studies clearly show that heart disease is one of the possible late effects of corona.
In a paper published in the journal
Nature Medicine
, researchers studied 153,760 US veterans who recovered from Covid-19 infection.
The results show that the risk of new cardiovascular diseases is increased in the first twelve months after the corona infection - especially in severe cases.
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"There is no cardiological clinical picture that does not occur more frequently after Covid," said Carsten Tschöpe, cardiologist and head of the cardiomyopathy unit at the Berlin Charité, the
mirror
.
His ambulance was full "to the point of no longer", he reported.
"And the patients who already have a diseased heart often simply have no reserves left."
Tschöpe sees a clear connection between previous corona infections and excess mortality in recent months.
After corona infection: increased risk of dementia and other mental illnesses
Late effects of corona infections can also affect mental and psychological health.
Researchers compared Covid-19 patients and people who had contracted cold or flu viruses
in a study published in the journal
The Lancet .
The results showed, among other things, that half a year after the corona infection, the risk of dementia was increased by 33 percent, and the risk of a cognitive deficit by as much as 36 percent.
In addition, the risk of psychoses, anxiety disorders, epileptic seizures, sleep disorders and depression was increased in those who had recovered from Covid.
Paul Harrison is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and one of the authors of the study.
He sees no reason to panic based on the results.
"It's not an epidemic of mental illness that's coming our way," he told
Der Spiegel
.
The vast majority of Covid patients were spared such late effects.
But: "We have to be prepared for the fact that the number of dementia cases in the coming years will be higher than we had assumed before the pandemic," he said.
Long-term consequences of the corona infection: “We should continue to be careful”
Virologist Isabella Eckerle from the Center for Novel Viral Diseases at the University Hospitals in Geneva complains that many of the late and long-term consequences of a corona infection are still underestimated.
"In public, you often have the feeling that Sars-CoV-2 is no longer a problem and you can now take stock of the past three years," she told
Der Spiegel
.
In a few years, the virologist believes that this balance sheet will probably have to be checked for late complications.
"We should continue to be cautious and not simply classify Sars-CoV-2 as one of the endemic colds," warned Eckerle.
In order to protect yourself from late and long-term consequences, the expert advises: "It is wiser not to get infected, or only as rarely as possible."
(ph)
