Long-Term Consequences of Covid-19: A Scope of Analysis on the Ongoing Physical and Mental Health Complications
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Abstract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has spread across the world. Despite vaccination efforts, SARS-CoV-2 has infected over 1.1 million individuals in the United States alone, with a new wave of increasing cases partially due to novel variants, such as the Delta variant of the virus, which are more easily transmissible. The clinical presentation of COVID-19 has been shown to vary widely, often with respiratory complications as a major feature. SARS-CoV-2 is notable in that a number of patients have gone on to develop long-term complications of the virus. Beyond initial reports of patients feeling fatigued for months following initial infection, long-haul COVID-19 has come to represent wide complications and sequelae of symptoms that may arise. These receptors are expressed in epithelial cells, nasal goblet cells, gastrointestinal epithelial cells, pancreatic β cells, and renal podocytes suggesting that direct tissue damage may be a primary mechanism of the presentation of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which may also contribute to its longer-term complications. Early data on in the pandemic revealed that endothelial cells had high expression of ACE2 and that COVID-19 infection led to substantial alteration to the integrity of the vessel barrier and promotion of a procoagulative state. Although SARS-CoV-2 can have wide-ranging impacts throughout the body, COVID-19 remains predominantly a respiratory illness. The physical and mental health conditions associated with COVID-19 includes neurological and psychiatric symptoms include fatigue, weakness after exertion, cognitive complaints, sensorimotor symptoms, headaches, insomnia, depression. There have been many long-term pulmonary complications described following COVID-19 infection. The lung diseases are prevalent medical conditions among COVID-19 patients globally, and patients with asthma and COPD are highly susceptible to getting infected. COVID-19 mainly causes respiratory tract infections in humans. The secondary fungal and bacterial infections in the lungs have been diagnosed earlier in patients affected by other coronaviral diseases. The early identification of infection and initiation of treatment measures can lower the COVID-19 associated mental health complications.