Researchers have shown that there are ‘seven forms of the disease in mild Covid-19’ that leaves behind significant changes in the immune system, even after 10 weeks of contracting the infection.
They identified seven groups of symptoms: “flu-like symptoms (with fever, chills, fatigue, and cough), common cold-like symptoms (with rhinitis, sneezing, dry throat, and nasal congestion), joint and muscle pain.
“Eye and mucosal inflammation, lung problems (with pneumonia and shortness of breath), gastrointestinal problems (including diarrhoea, nausea, and headache) and loss of sense of smell and taste and other symptoms.”
“These findings could play a significant role in the treatment of patients and in the development of a potent vaccine,” said study authors from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria.
In a study, published in the journal Allergy, the research team examined convalescents and 98 healthy individuals in the control group and were able to show that various symptoms related to Covid-19 occur in symptom groups.
“In the latter group we found that loss of smell and taste predominantly affects individuals with a ‘young immune system’, measured by the number of immune cells (T lymphocytes) that have recently emigrated from the thymus gland,” said study author Winfried F. Pickl.
At the same time, the scientists established that Covid-19 leaves behind long detectable changes in the blood of convalescents, very similar to a fingerprint.
“Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the disease and help us in the development of potential vaccines since we now have access to promising biomarkers and can perform even better monitoring,” the scientists wrote.
