Amit Shah dealing with post-COVID ailments, re-admitted to AIIMS

Amit Shah was previously admitted to AIIMS on August 18 after he suffered post-COVID ailments days after his recovery from COVID-19 disease.

Home Minister Amit Shah, who had tested positive for COVID-19 on August 2, been re-admitted to All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after complaining of breathing issues on Saturday. Also Read - COVID-19 Live Updates: Cases in India surge to 47,54,356 while death toll reaches 78,586

Quoting multiple sources, IANS reported that Shah was admitted at AIIMS around 11 p.m. on Saturday night. He is being kept in CN tower, a facility reserved for VVIPs, and under the observation of Dr Randeep Guleria, director of AIIMS. His condition is said to be stable now. However, the hospital has not confirmed the report yet. Also Read - Why you shouldn’t sing loudly during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Shah was previously admitted to AIIMS on August 18 after he suffered post-COVID ailments days after his recovery from COVID-19 disease. He had received treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram soon after he tested positive for COVID-19 in early August. He was discharged after testing negative on August 14, but was re-admitted in AIIMS to treat his post-COVID syndromes on August 18. He had also complained of breathing issues then. Also Read - Dining out during COVID-19 pandemic is more risky than shopping or visiting someone’s house

Beware of the long term side-effects of COVID-19 

The novel coronavirus can have long term side-effects on health. Researchers have warned that some typical symptoms, such as cough, itching throat, and fatigue may continue to persist for weeks after combating the illness and even when the viral load has depleted. There have been reports of recovered patients returning to hospitals, with complaints of heart issues, mental distress, and much more.

A study titled ‘long COVID’ conducted by the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals, NHS Trust said that 1 in 10 people may suffer from symptoms of the viral infection or damage, even after successfully recovering from it.

For the study, the UK researchers followed some recovered COVID patients to identify a pattern of long-lasting symptoms and consequences of the disease.  Post-COVID ailments are more likely to be experienced by people hospitalized due to the infection, the study noted.

Post-COVID syndromes experienced by recovered patients

According to the UK study published in the Journal of Medical Virology, most patients who had recovered from COVID-19 admitted to suffering from one side-effect or persisting symptom. Below are the most common after-effects of COVID-19 post the recovery:

Fatigue

Long-lasting fatigue or weakness could persist for weeks and months after a person recovers from the viral disease. Nearly 60% of the patients involved in the ‘long COVID’ study experienced fatigue, lethargy, tiredness in the weeks following recovery. Unbalanced energy levels could lead to related symptoms like muscle aches, pins and needles pain, and palpitations – it said.

Improper immune response and inflammatory attack, known as cytokine storm in COVID terminology, is believed to be responsible for energy loss and imbalance. Post-recovery fatigue was also recorded in the previous SARS and Epstein-Barr virus outbreaks.

Breathlessness

Breathlessness and tugging chest pain is considered to be symptoms of severe COVID infection. However, breathlessness might persist in some patients even after they have made a recovery from the infection.

Feeling out of breath, suffering from palpitations are another most common after-effects of COVID. This symptom was found to be much more common in patients who required intensive care at the hospital.

Heart damage

Breathlessness could also indicate heart damage or complication, which is another possible long-term complication associated with COVID-19.

COVID-19 infection can also lead to the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), also known as a pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome. This post-COVID syndrome can damage the heart to such an extent that some children will need lifelong monitoring and intervention, warned a medical literature review published Sept. 4 in EClinicalMedicine, a journal of The Lancet.