Long-term drawback of COVID-19 virus

ONE of the long-term complications of COVID-19 is known as “long COVID” where the thinking capabilities of people testing positive for COVID-19 will weaken.

Speaking during the Fiji National University Explain the Science last week, member of the national COVID-19 taskforce Dr Ravi Naidu said “long COVID” could be a longterm condition.

“After one year, we are starting to see this coming in literature and science, where before, COVID people could study well and were doing well in work, but after COVID, months after months, their normal functioning, their everyday living has decreased and their brain condition is affected,” he said.

He said respiratory complications were largely evident in the hospitals.

“Respiratory complications, they mostly need oxygen and heart complications where the heart gets damaged such as heart attack or difficulty in heart beating.

“Neurology complications, such as the brain gets weak, they can’t think, the infection spreads in the brain and one is where we say that the blood gets thicker, blood clot start and clots break which can reach the lungs and can cause death.

“80 per cent of cases are mild. That’s why some say that they can’t believe that a person has COVID because the majority are asymptomatic and those who are severe cases are those 15 per cent cases where people need oxygen like in India.

“The remaining 5 per cent are the critical patients. If we simplify this, these are patients who are at the edge of death and need to put on ventilators so the machine supports them.”

He said the elder population, those who had other diseases such as heart disease, lung diseases, cancer, obesity and smokers could have more severe diseases of COVID-19.