COVID-19 “Long-Haulers” Face Ongoing Health Battles

With over 26 million cases in the U.S. and nearly 440,000 deaths, COVID-19 has more than earned its title of the “Worst Pandemic in 100 Years.”

The toll the disease has taken on our health, economy, emotions and our world is staggering. Perhaps one of the most surprising and medically baffling aspect has been the wide range of long-term side effects for COVID-19 patients. These individuals with lingering effects have been dubbed as “long-haulers” by the medical community.

“The other thing I think is surprising is how many organ systems that this virus is affecting. Pulmonary - meaning the lungs, cardiac - the heart, neurological and also psychological. We’re at a loss at what to do for some of these patients and their severe symptoms,” Zijian Chen, Medical Director for Mt. Sinai Center for Post-COVID Care, told The Wall Street Journal.

For the most part, people think of symptoms like fatigue, fever, shortness of breath, cough, aching joints, chest pain, loss of taste and smell with COVID-19 infection. But the CDC reports another list of long-term symptoms: brain fog, depression, heart palpitations, muscle pain, ongoing intermittent fever. More serious lasting complications include inflammation of the heart muscle, lung function abnormalities, acute kidney injury, rashes, hair loss, sleep issues, blood clots, memory problems and more.

“There will be more patients with long-term symptoms, so the need to understand the disease is not only to treat the patients we have now but also the patients of the future,” Chen said.

The Washington Post recently reported that new diabetes cases have also been linked to COVID-19. Both type 1 and type 2 diagnoses have seemingly added to the list of potential complications of the coronavirus. It’s not yet clear if the virus spurs on a problem that was developing already or actually causes it.

The statistics are a bit alarming – as many as 14.4% of patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 have developed diabetes as of a November global analysis. Whether the Type 1 and Type 2 cases are temporary or permanent is not yet known.

A report released just last month made a startling discovery. An international team discovered that the coronavirus appears to prompt the body to make weapons to attack its own tissues. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed but presents the possibility that COVID-19 infection could be setting patients up for autoimmune diseases later in life like MS, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. This could explain why symptoms persist for so long in many.

The team’s findings also support the mystery behind the serious inflammatory syndrome seen in some adults and even children after exposure to COVID-19. While children don’t typically suffer as serious an illness with the virus, there have still been children dying from infection, particularly those diagnosed with Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C).

Studies are now showing that even individuals who experienced an asymptomatic case of COVID-19 can have lingering after effects in their bodies, potentially increasing health risks later in life. Approximately one-fourth to one-third of cases are asymptomatic. However, even those patients can have irregular lung scans, cardiac issues and small blood vessel damage.

It’s not yet clear if these impacts are long-term or will resolve on their own over time.

Many groups are already studying the lingering medical issues these “long-haulers” are facing. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases included some asymptomatic patients in their research, as well as the Alzheimer’s Association who’s looking into brain changes post-COVID.

“There is a risk of internal hits to these people that they are unaware of,” said Eric J. Topol, founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute, a medical research facility in La Jolla, Calif. “When things happen slowly in a person, below the surface, you can end up with a chronic situation.”