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| (Roos Koole/Moment, Getty Images) |
By American Heart Association News
It was a Tuesday in late March when Julia Henry first felt the body
aches and dry cough that signaled the start of her bout with COVID-19.
By that weekend, her husband and three children also were sick. But the
kids were fine less than a week later, her husband within two weeks.
"My
husband just woke up one day starting to feel back to normal, and I
kept waiting for that day when I would have that feeling. But I never
did. I never did," said Henry, a 40-year-old physical therapist from New
Hampshire.
"For more than two months, I couldn't do much of
anything," she said. "Now after three months, I'm finally starting to be
able to do some normal, everyday things, like play with my kids or cook
dinner for my family."
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| Julia Henry and her family all had COVID-19, but her recovery took months longer than theirs. | (Photo courtesy of Julia Henry) |
As of early July 6, there have been nearly 2.9 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University's oft-used tracker.
Of those, 906,763 – about 31% – are listed as "recovered." But recovery
isn't the same for everyone. The World Health Organization reports the
median time for recovery is up to two weeks for those with mild cases,
while those with more severe cases can take up to six weeks for symptoms
to resolve.
Some people, however, say they continue to
experience symptoms months after infection. In doctor visits and on
social media groups, a growing number of patients report lingering
symptoms ranging from mild issues, such as continued loss of taste or
smell, to more serious ones, such as heart palpitations, chest pain,
shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, cognitive difficulties or
recurring fevers. Whether these symptoms eventually resolve or whether
they signal permanent damage from the virus remains unknown.
"It
has been just six months since the virus was detected in China, so
nobody can tell you for sure if these are short-term or long-term
complications," said Dr. Samer Kottiech, a cardiologist in New York City
who estimates 90% of his patients who come in after COVID-19 infections
experience prolonged symptoms.
Kottiech, who was himself infected in March, said he hasn't fully recovered either.
"The
biggest problem is that my lung capacity is still a little bit
decreased," he said. "I used to be very active. Now I don't feel like I
can exercise like I used to."
With little data to go on, it is
too soon to draw conclusions about what's happening to those with
lingering issues, said Dr. Avindra Nath, head of clinical neurology at
the National Institutes of Health's Institute for Neurological Disorders
and Stroke.
He believes several things could be occurring: the
patient could have an underlying condition, such as heart disease or
diabetes, which they didn't know was there prior to infection; the
virus, or the body's immune system response to it, could be causing new
damage; or, the patient may be experiencing something called post-viral
fatigue syndrome, a condition reported in some patients infected with
other coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS.
"What we know from these other viral infections is that they can cause problems that last for years," Nath said.
Nath
is preparing to enroll patients in a study that will investigate what's
going on in the immune systems of people who don't fully recover from
COVID-19.
"There is some abnormality in the immune system that's
doing it," he said. "We want to find out what those abnormalities are.
Once you figure that out, you can potentially treat them."
Unlike
trying to unravel what's happened to the immune systems of patients who
have felt ill for years, Nath said, "we now have an excellent
opportunity, because we know what these patients had and exactly when
they had it. It is early enough in the course of this illness that we
can learn a lot about how and why these symptoms are occurring, which
could have broad implications for all people with post-viral syndrome."
However,
people with lingering COVID-19 symptoms shouldn't assume they'll stay
ill for years, Nath said. "I want to reassure people there is still time
for them to get better. Even if they are only gradually improving, if
they are getting better at all, they will probably continue to do so."
Editor's
note: Because of the rapidly evolving events surrounding the
coronavirus, the facts and advice presented in this story may have
changed since publication. Visit Heart.org for the latest coverage, and
check with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local
health officials for the most recent guidance.
