New COVID-19 Variant Raises Concerns, Long COVID Becomes Third Leading Neurologic Disorder in the US
CHICAGO, Ill. — The CDC is tracking a new line of the COVID-19 virus, raising concerns as it has more than 30 mutations in total, which is much more than any other COVID variant circulating. This comes at a time when COVID hospitalizations are beginning to rise up to more than 6,000 a week.
For one in every five people who get COVID, the symptoms persist for months, if not years. Neurologist Igor Koralnik is part of a team that studied more than 1800 long COVID patients. New research out of Northwestern Medicine found that millions of people who tested negative for the virus may actually have long COVID. Symptoms include brain fog, memory problems, fatigue, anxiety, depression, insomnia, breathing problems, muscle aches, and heart issues.
“We think that long COVID is a new autoimmune disease which is caused by the virus,” said Koralnik.
Their study found 83% of patients had abnormal CT chest scans, 51% cognitive impairment, 45% altered lung function, and 12% had an elevated heart rate. Long COVID has become the third leading neurologic disorder in the US.
According to research, long COVID hits women in their forties, who were never hospitalized earlier due to COVID. “We think that long COVID is a new autoimmune disease which is caused by the virus,” said Koralnik. Women are four times more likely than men to develop autoimmune diseases.
Now Doctor Koralnik encourages patients to keep looking for a customized treatment that works for them. Researchers at Northwestern are looking at biomarkers in the blood to see if they hold answers as to why one person’s symptoms linger on, while others recover quickly. Doctor Koralnik said that although the COVID-19 vaccine continues to save lives, they do not believe it has an impact on whether or not a person will get long COVID.