By Metro Health – University of Michigan Health
WKTV is committed to providing factual information about COVID-19. We have partnered with Metro Health – University of Michigan Health to present questions about COVID-19 and to help dispel the misinformation being spread through social media.
Dr. Conor Mullin, a physician at Metro Health Southwest, answers this week’s question.
Question: What long term health impacts are people experiencing who have had COVID-19?
Mullin: The long term health consequences of this virus are unknown and we will have to wait to see with time. We can infer from other similar viruses that in 6-12 months, there is likely to be a surge in autoimmune disorders such as diabetes, thyroid disease, lupus and multiple sclerosis.
There is a specific debilitating disorder affecting younger adults called ADEM which causes permanent and irreversible stroke-like symptoms caused by brain tissue inflammation. In the pediatric world, we have seen in increase in a syndrome that is comparable to Kawasaki disease, where there is potential for damage to the coronary arteries around the heart, that may cause heart attacks or even death.
Personally, I have seen some patients, especially younger folks, who have continued to have lung and breathing issues two months after the initial infection. This is most likely caused by scarring damage to the lungs. Whether these patients recover is yet to be seen. These patients were young and healthy and did not have pre-exiting conditions.
One of my colleagues also had a younger patient die of a heart attack a few weeks after recovering from COVID-19. He also had no prior known cardiovascular disease.
The short answer is that there are some isolated cases of very severe outcomes and time will tell how widespread and severe the long term outcomes will be.
If you have a COVID-19-related question, please email it to WKTV Managing Editor Joanne Bailey-Boorsma at joanne@wktv.org.
