Sixty-five percent of patients with residual virus in the clinical trial had long-covid symptoms.
Long-covid symptoms appear to be related to the presence of viral components. This concludes a clinical study of patients with chronic intestinal diseases led by Herbert Tilg, Director of Internal Medicine I at Innsbruck University Hospital. “The fact that viral remnants correlate with long-covid symptoms has never been shown humanely before,” Tilg said in an APA interview.
Specifically, 46 patients with inflammatory bowel disease were also examined for corona in gastrointestinal endoscopy, described by the renowned internist and gastroenterologist, who is also considered a leader in the research. This mirror examination is performed regularly in these relatively younger patients, between 20 and 30 years old. Sixty-five percent of patients with detected viral remnants in the intestines showed long-avoid symptoms such as fatigue and exhaustion. “And where no viral remnants were found, there were no Long Covid symptoms,” Tilg said of the study’s main findings. The Long Covid symptoms would have existed regardless of the underlying disease present.
In addition, 90 percent of those examined had experienced mild corona disease. This shows again that it is by no means the case that long covid mainly results in people with a severe course of the disease.
Tilg also came up with further remarkable findings in the study, which has just been published in the renowned scientific journal “Gastroenterology”: In 32 patients, i.e., around 70 percent, virus components or virus residues were still found in the mucosa of the small or large intestine on average 7.3 months after the Corona infection, and in over 50 percent the virus protein was still present.
In addition, blood tests have also been done to measure the virus’s antibody response to the virus. “The patients who had the most virus found in their tissues had fewer antibodies,” the internist illustrated.
No proof, but an indication
“None of this is proof, but it is a strong indication that the body seems to have a problem eliminating these viral components for good,” the physician emphasized. Medicine has not yet found an answer to the exact reason for this and how the components can be completely eradicated. Incidentally, there are other viral diseases where something similar is suspected, but these are much rarer, according to Tilg.
Overall, it was obvious to use such a “patient group” for the study. Chronic inflammatory bowel diseases or the instrument of gastrointestinal endoscopy are virtually predestined since such an examination is repeatedly necessary for these patients. It is impossible to “get into” every other organ area so quickly – and with proportionate, justifiable effort. There is no proof, but it is also apparent that such virus residues can also be present in other organs, such as the lungs, kidneys, or liver, Tilg emphasized.
- source: kurier.at/picture: pixabay.com
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