Heart attacks, strokes could be lingering effects of covid19

Dr Roshan Parasram. -
Dr Roshan Parasram. -

SOME of the health issues being experienced after a person recovers from the covid19 virus includes strokes, heart attacks and fatigue, Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said on Wednesday.

At the Ministry of Health's covid19 briefing, Parasram said it was observed locally that the health of people who recovered from the virus was affected by myocardial infractions (heart attacks) and cerebrovascular accidents (strokes) during recovery.

"We have seen certain individuals take an extremely long time to actually get back to normal function, especially respiratory function. So there has been a lot of fatigue, post infection, with severely ill individuals. There has been some persistent illness lasting weeks in terms of the recovery post-covid19.

"There has been noted thromboembolic phenomena (blood clots) occurring, cerebrovascular accidents occurring – which we know as strokes, as well as myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) occurring in our population as well."

He also noted some cases where children developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome – a condition where different body parts including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin and eyes can become inflamed.

On the trend of persistent health effects, County Medical Officer of Health Dr Osafo Fraser said it was also noted at the county level, that some people took longer to recover from their symptoms than others.

He added that while lingering symptoms were noted, it was too early to determine how long the effects of the virus could be experienced after recovery.

"We have noticed a lot of people complaining about a loss of taste and smell and those tend to take a longer time to come back to normal. Another thing people tend to complain about is the body pain and fatigue.

"The longest we've noticed so far in the community, we've had people at least home for a month dealing with the symptoms of covid19."

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"Heart attacks, strokes could be lingering effects of covid19"

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