The causes for which in some patients the symptomatology that entails persistent COVID does not disappear are still unknown. Yes it has been observed, explains Pilar Rodríguez Ledo, president of the Spanish Research Network in Persistent Covid (Reicop), which does not influence … virus will manifest hard. “Gravity does not influence, and although it is true that there are some people who had a serious acute respiratory infection with important sequelae, in most cases we do not talk about this,” he says. Although some of the patients did become in the ICU, this doctor continues, the bulk of those affected by ‘long covid’ are people who passed the disease slightly or even without symptoms. “Some only knew of the infection for a positive proof,” he confirms.
It also clashes that in many cases there was no previous disease. “Most of these people did not have chronic previous pathologies, but were mostly healthy people, who had no other concomitant disease, even had a good level of physical activity and as far as they had what they had was a slight asthma,” he continues.
It has also been found that more than 70 percent of those affected are women and the Middle Ages. “50% are between 36 and 55,” says Rodríguez Ledo. But there are persistent covid patients of all ages, even children, in which it is usually diagnosed is even more complicated. «In children the manifestation is much more difficult to identify. What we see in the little ones is that most of the time they pass asymptomatic acute infection and then express those deficits of concentration, memory and asthenia when, suddenly, they stop playing in the courtyard, they stop being with their friends, etc. ”, describes the president of the Reicop.
The different international studies that are underway point to different hypotheses such as viral persistence, autoimmunity, inflammation and microbiota alterations or blood vessels. Little is known about the pathophysiology of the disease although one of the strongest evidence, according to Lourdes Mateu, coordinator of the persistent covid unit of the Germans Trias Trias Hospital in Badalona (Barcelona), is that its appearance is linked to a dysfunction of our immune system. “Patients who have persistent COVID have an alteration in the immune system, in particular an activation of the complement that favors the inflammation of the inner wall of the blood vessels and that could be responsible for some of the symptoms that patients have,” admits.
No treatment
“There is still no treatment that points to the causes, only therapies aimed at combating symptoms, although there are many international groups that are investigating and that brings a lot of hope,” says Mateu. His group leads precisely one of the studies in progress, the ‘Thalassa’ essay, with which it is intended to evaluate the “safety and tolerability” of Plitidepsin, an antitumor developed by Pharmamar for the treatment of various viruses, including the SARS-COV-2.
The specialist also emphasizes the importance of vaccinating to protect against the pathology. Along the same lines, Rodríguez Ledo insists that “the danger has not disappeared”, although immunity and vaccines have already reduced the figures of the disease: at the beginning of the pandemic up to 30% of the infected developed persistent covid and later that percentage stabilized up to 10%. “The figures are probably now 6%,” he says. The Ministry of Health has already defined the ‘Long Covid’ as chronic disease in its last review.
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