We Need to Take Care of the Growing Number of Long-Term COVID-19 Patients

On July 7, 2020, the Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez tested positive for the new coronavirus. He was scheduled to start Opening Day for the Sox, but the virus had other plans—damaging Rodriguez’s heart and causing a condition called myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle). Now the previously fit 27-year old ace left-hander must sit out the 2020 season to recover. Rodriguez is not alone in having heart damage from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In a new study done in Germany, researchers studied the hearts of 100 patients who had recently recovered from COVID-19. The findings were alarming: 78 patients had heart abnormalities, as shown by a special kind of imaging test that shows the heart’s structure (a cardiac MRI), and 60 had myocarditis. These patients were mostly young and previously healthy. Several had just returned from ski trips. While other studies have shown a lower rate of heart problems—for example, a study of 416 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, found that 20% of patients had heart damage during hospitalization—clearly, SARS-CoV-2 commonly damages the heart. When we think of COVID-19, we tend to believe it has two distinct types: patients either get very sick and wind up in the intensive care unit or they have a mild form that’s similar to a cold and quickly get better. But it’s now becoming clear that there’s a third category: people who are infected, were not hospi...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 UnitedWeRise20Disaster Source Type: news