Covid-19 patients face symptoms which are very uncertain.
What is the uncertainty?
Fever, cough and difficulty in breathing are some of the most common symptoms of COVID-19.
But, the disease has been known to affect different parts of the body.
Further, it is still not clear why some individuals infected with the disease remain asymptomatic, while there are others who develop mild symptoms and some who get critically ill due to the disease.
What are the conditions that may be associated with Covid-19?
Cytokine storm syndrome (CSS) - Research suggested that the Covid-19 might induce cytokine storm in some patients.
Cytokine storm is characterised by the overproduction of immune cells and cytokines themselves.
Ideally, once the immune system is triggered after the body is infected by a pathogen, the immune cells will reach the site of infection or injury and start the repair.
But in case of a CSS, the excess of immune cells start to damage the healthy tissue as well.
If the clinical features of CSS are not identified on time, the syndrome can lead to multiple organ failure, sepsis and even death
CSS is seen as a likely major cause of mortality in both the 1918-20 Spanish Flu, and the H1N1 (swine flu) and H5N1 (bird flu) outbreaks in recent years.
Covid toe: The skin condition is characterised by purple, blue or red discolouration of the toes and sometimes even the fingers.
It is also described as “chilblain-like lesions”.
However, it is not yet clear if there is a direct relationship between this skin condition and Covid-19.
Multi-system inflammation in children - Children have formed a very small subset of those infected with Covid-19.
Astudy found that the children infected with the virus show milder symptoms, have a faster recovery and a better prognosis compared to adults.
This rare illness causes inflammation of the blood vessels, which leads to low blood pressure.
It affects the entire body as it causes a build-up of fluid in the lungs and other organs and the condition is similar to Kawasaki disease.
[Kawasaki disease - It is an acute inflammatory disease of the blood vessels and occurs in children below the age of five.]
Neurological connection - Some neurological manifestations reported by the JAMA Neurology study are dizziness, headache, impaired consciousness, acute cerebrovascular disease, loss of full control of body movements, seizures.
Some manifestations were also reported in the peripheral nervous system, which include impairment in the sense of taste and smell.
Further, some specialists had observed neurological symptoms in Covid-19 patients in Germany, France, Austria, Italy and Holland.
Bowel abnormalities - The cause of such abnormalities and if they are directly related to Covid-19 is not exactly clear yet.
Some possible explanations for the spectrum of bowel findings include direct viral infection and small vessel thrombosis.
