Inflammation Emerging As New Coronavirus Symptom

Since the disease was made known to the public months ago, experts have always warned everyone about the symptoms of the disease. These include having a high temperature, breathing difficulties, and continuous cough.

In just a few months, more symptoms such as chest pain, diarrhea, body ache, headache, and even skin rashes are being noticed. Today, doctors noticed yet another symptom, and it is the surprising amount of inflammation happening in children infected with COVID-19.

A Form Of Toxic Shock

UK doctors have reported an increasing number of COVID-19 patients, mostly children, suffering from a surprising amount of inflammation. Medical practitioners described the symptom as similar to a fatal illness, which appears to be a type of toxic shock syndrome.

A Toronto-based pediatrician, Dr. Dina Kulik, said that while she has not seen such symptom personally in any of her COVID-19 patients, she has read all about it. She said that she had read about how such symptoms appear in coronavirus patients no matter what age and whether or not they are experiencing typical symptoms of the virus.

An Inflammatory-Type Response

In an interview with HuffPost Canada, Dr. Kulik said doctors have been noticing many COVID-19 patients suffering from an inflammatory-type response. She said that it is believed to have something to do with endothelium, a layer found in the blood vessels. Endotheliitis or the inflammation of the endothelium can cause the formation of blood clots.

Such blood clots, according to Dr. Kulik, can lead to a host of symptoms. “Anything that would present in an inflammatory way. Some people are presenting with strokes, some people are presenting with heart attacks, some people are presenting with weird rashes, typically on the extremities on the feet,” Dr. Kulik said. While doctors have been observing ‘COVID toes’ in coronavirus-afflicted kids, this new type of inflammation has been seen in COVID-19 patients of all ages, she said.

A Blood Vessel Disease

Dr. Kulik noted that coronavirus patients who are in their 30s and 40s have been dying of strokes, an ailment that is supposed to affect much older people. Strokes occur when there is a blockage in the blood vessels, preventing blood from getting to the brain. Such blockages can be caused by clots getting stuck in the blood vessels.

According to Dr. Kulik, this type of inflammation is only beginning to be understood, underscoring how little the medical profession knows about COVID-19. Dr. Kulik also said that this phenomenon might classify COVID-19 as a blood vessel disease.

Other doctors agree with Dr. Kulik’s assessment. Dr. Hooman Poor, a pulmonologist, said he noticed high levels of a protein in COVID-19 patients, which he believed to be fighting off blood clots. Dr. Poor is also a critical care specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He said he gave patients a drug that breaks blood clots, which is typically used to treat stroke patients. Dr. Poor said his patients stabilized after being administered the drug, though most of them died after a few weeks.