Tag: brain damage

New imaging shows virus invading the body and lingering for years, potentially explaining Long COVID

Published December 7, 2024

Published by: The West Australian
Published on: December 8, 2024
By John Flint

Next time you think of dismissing COVID as just another annoying common cold it may pay to visualise what you see so starkly in this paper, the virus moving freely around your body and finding a long-term home in all sorts of places where it can really cause trouble, including the brain and the heart.

This work further emphasises the need for individuals, and societies as a whole to take this infection more seriously and try and reduce the amount of transmission using the tools we currently have, most especially vaccination, clean indoor air approaches and well-fitted masks in crowded and poorly ventilated indoor settings.

— Professor Brendan Crabb, director and CEO of the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health

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research

Ultra-powered MRI scans show damage to brain’s ‘control centre’ is behind long-lasting Covid-19 symptoms

Published October 8, 2024

Published by: University of Cambridge
Published on: October 8, 2024

Damage to the brainstem – the brain’s ‘control centre’ – is behind long-lasting physical and psychiatric effects of severe Covid-19 infection, a study suggests.

Using ultra-high-resolution scanners that can see the living brain in fine detail, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were able to observe the damaging effects Covid-19 can have on the brain.

The study team scanned the brains of 30 people who had been admitted to hospital with severe Covid-19 early in the pandemic, before vaccines were available. The researchers found that Covid-19 infection damages the region of the brainstem associated with breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety.

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data suppression

There’s a gaping hole in Canada’s COVID tracking

Published August 22, 2024

Published by: Toronto Star
Published on: August 22, 2024
By Iris Gorfinkel

The Government of Canada’s website tracks the number of hospitalizations and deaths from acute COVID-19. What it fails to include are the hospitalizations and deaths that result from COVID’s longer-term health consequences.

Even mild cases carry risk, but COVID most frequently wallops people after severe cases, especially when hospitalized. Of the nearly 300,000 Canadians hospitalized so far, over half likely have — or will — suffer life-changing health consequences, sometimes years after having recovered from the acute illness. These risks climb with repeated infections.

Hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 are often delayed. Like high blood pressure, SARS CoV-2 can gradually damage the inner lining of blood vessels. This by itself, is painless. While it happens to people following mild cases of COVID, it’s far more likely after severe ones, especially after hospitalization. This doubles the downstream risk of having a heart attack, stroke or blood clot in the lung. It triples the risk of developing an abnormal heart rhythm, including atrial fibrillation.

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cognitive issues

COVID-related loss of smell tied to changes in the brain

Published August 19, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: August 19, 2024
By Mary Van Beusekom

A new study of 73 adults recovering from COVID-19 finds that those who lost their sense of smell showed behavioral, functional, and structural brain changes.

Researchers in Chile conducted cognitive screening, performance on a decision-making task, functional testing, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results with 73 patients after mild to moderate COVID-19 infection and 27 COVID-naïve patients with infections from other pathogens. Two follow-up sessions were conducted 15 days apart.

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cognitive issues

Radio | COVID infections are causing drops in IQ and years of brain aging, studies suggest

Published April 12, 2024

Published by: CBC Radio | Quirks and Quarks
Published on: April 12, 2024
By Amanda Buckiewicz

When COVID-19 first reared its head back in 2019, it brought with it a slew of strange symptoms beyond just respiratory problems. One of the most puzzling symptoms in those early days was something called “brain fog” — cognitive issues like confusion, forgetfulness, and trouble focusing.

And while other symptoms have changed as the virus mutated, brain fog is still a common complaint of COVID sufferers not only during the initial illness, but extending for months or even years afterwards. Several recent studies have been trying to understand exactly what this virus is doing to our brains — and how to stop it.

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cognitive decline

COVID Linked to Lower IQ, Poor Memory and Other Negative Impacts on Brain Health

Published March 24, 2024

Published by: People
Published on: March 24, 2024
By Erin Clack

Taken together, these studies show that COVID-19 poses a serious risk to brain health, even in mild cases, and the effects are now being revealed at the population level. […]

The growing body of research now confirms that COVID-19 should be considered a virus with a significant impact on the brain. The implications are far-reaching, from individuals experiencing cognitive struggles to the potential impact on populations and the economy.

— Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly

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cognitive issues

COVID’s toll on the brain: new clues emerge

Published March 20, 2024

Published by: Nature
Published on: March 20, 2024
By Claudia López Lloreda

Loss of smell, headaches, memory problems: COVID-19 can bring about a troubling storm of neurological symptoms that make everyday tasks difficult. Now new research adds to the evidence that inflammation in the brain might underlie these symptoms.

Not all data point in the same direction. Some new studies suggest that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, directly infects brain cells. Those findings bolster the hypothesis that direct infection contributes to COVID-19-related brain problems. But the idea that brain inflammation is key has gotten fresh support: one study, for example, has identified specific brain areas prone to inflammation in people with COVID-19.

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measles

Doctors urge myth-busting, education to counter misinformation as measles cases rise

Published March 15, 2024

Published by: The Canadian Press
Published on: March 15, 2024
By Camille Bains

It was a horrible thing to see this young girl who was brain dead. She died in that hospital. We were told that one in 1,000 people who got measles had a serious complication and one in 10,000 could die. You think that’s pretty rare but millions of kids got it before vaccination. So even though the percentage was low the absolute numbers were considerable.

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cognitive decline

Des déclins cognitifs constatés après une infection à la COVID-19

Published March 7, 2024

Published by: Radio-Canada
Published on: March 7, 2024
By Mélanie Meloche-Holubowski

Scientific evidence about the long-term effects of COVID-19 continues to accumulate. Two new studies involving hundreds of thousands of people suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infections can cause cognitive decline.

Researchers at Imperial College, London recruited nearly 113,000 Britons previously infected with the COVID-19 virus for their study. These individuals engaged in various cognitive exercises to assess their memory and their faculties of concentration and attention. Their results were compared to those of people never infected.

The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that the coronavirus is believed to impair cognitive abilities and the intelligence quotient (IQ).

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cognitive issues

Long covid may cause cognitive decline of about six IQ points, study finds

Published February 29, 2024

Published by: The Washington Post
Published on: February 29, 2024
By Victoria Bisset

It’s more than four years since the first cases of covid-19 were identified — but many of its longer-term effects, including for those living with long covid, remain unclear.

Now, a new study has some worrying findings that suggest covid may have longer-term effects on cognition and memory — and that these lead to measurable differences in cognitive performance.

The study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that participants who recovered from covid symptoms had a cognitive deficit equivalent to three IQ points compared with those who were never infected, while participants suffering from unresolved covid symptoms lasting 12 weeks or more experienced a loss equivalent to six IQ points.

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cognitive issues

Mounting research shows that COVID-19 leaves its mark on the brain, including with significant drops in IQ scores

Published February 28, 2024

Published by: The Conversation
Published on: February 28, 2024
By Ziyad Al-Aly

From the very early days of the pandemic, brain fog emerged as a significant health condition that many experience after COVID-19.

Brain fog is a colloquial term that describes a state of mental sluggishness or lack of clarity and haziness that makes it difficult to concentrate, remember things and think clearly.

Fast-forward four years and there is now abundant evidence that being infected with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – can affect brain health in many ways.

In addition to brain fog, COVID-19 can lead to an array of problems, including headaches, seizure disorders, strokes, sleep problems, and tingling and paralysis of the nerves, as well as several mental health disorders.

A large and growing body of evidence amassed throughout the pandemic details the many ways that COVID-19 leaves an indelible mark on the brain. But the specific pathways by which the virus does so are still being elucidated, and curative treatments are nonexistent.

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brain damage

Ongoing brain injury caused by COVID-19 may not always be detected by routine tests

Published January 2, 2024

Published by: King’s College London
Published on: January 2, 2024

A new study published recently in Nature Communications details that markers of brain injury are present in the blood many months after COVID-19 infection, despite inflammation blood tests being normal.

The COVID-CNS study analysed samples from over 800 patients hospitalised with COVID-19 from across England and Wales, half of whom with new neurological conditions. Here researchers measured brain injury markers, serum inflammatory proteins (cytokines), antibodies, and brain (neuroglial) injury proteins.

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brain damage

Brain damage caused by COVID-19 may not show up on routine tests, study finds

Published December 27, 2023

Published by: Salon
Published on: December 27, 2023
By Matthew Rozsa

Our study shows that markers of brain injury are present in the blood months after COVID-19, and particularly in those who have had a COVID-19-induced brain complication (e.g. inflammation, or stroke), despite resolution of the inflammatory response in the blood. This suggests the possibility of ongoing inflammation and injury inside the brain itself which may not be detected by blood tests for inflammation.

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Alzheimer’s disease

COVID-19 linked to a greater risk of Alzheimer’s, other disorders

Published December 27, 2023

Published by: The Asahi Shimbun
Published on: December 27, 2023
By Tokiko Tsuji

Another long-term effect of the novel coronavirus appears to be a higher chance of patients contracting Alzheimer’s disease in the years to follow, according to the latest research.

Numerous large research projects overseas have shown a link between COVID-19 and cognitive disorders, along with Alzheimer’s.

“The novel coronavirus is a new risk factor for dementia,” said Takayoshi Shimohata, a neurology professor at Gifu University, who also serves on the health ministry’s editorial committee that compiles a manual for treating COVID-19’s aftereffects. “There needs to be greater understanding that the illness also affects the brain.”

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cognitive issues

Small study finds brain alterations after COVID Omicron infection

Published December 4, 2023

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: December 4, 2023
By Mary Van Beusekom

Researchers in China report thinning of the gray matter and other changes in certain parts of the brain in 61 men after COVID-19 Omicron infection.

For the study, published late last week in JAMA Network Open, the researchers evaluated 61 men before and after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in January 2023. The men had been part of a larger cohort who had undergone magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychiatric screenings before infection in August and September 2022. Average age was 43 years.

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long COVID

MRI study spotlights impact of long COVID on the brain

Published November 22, 2023

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: November 22, 2023
By Stephanie Soucheray

A new study comparing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images of patients with long COVID, fully recovered COVID-19 survivors, and healthy controls shows microstructural changes in different brain regions in the long-COVID patients. The findings will be presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

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The eighth COVID-19 wave is here. Could catching it trigger Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or autoimmune disorders?

neurodegenerative diseases

The eighth COVID-19 wave is here. Could catching it trigger Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or autoimmune disorders?

Published November 21, 2023

Published by: ABC News
Published on: November 21, 2023
By Catherine Taylor

From the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have raised concerns about the potential for long-term health problems linked to SARS-CoV-2 and warned repeated infections are likely to increase the risk.

An association between COVID and cardiovascular disease emerged quickly.

And now — almost exactly four years since the first case was discovered in Wuhan — a growing body of scientific research is cautiously linking the inflammation caused by a COVID infection to diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s as well as autoimmune conditions from bowel disease to rheumatoid arthritis.

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cognitive issues

Can’t Think, Can’t Remember: More Americans Say They’re in a Cognitive Fog

Published November 13, 2023

Published by: The New York Times
Published on: November 13, 2023
By Francesca Paris

There are more Americans who say they have serious cognitive problems — with remembering, concentrating or making decisions — than at any time in the last 15 years, data from the Census Bureau shows.

The increase started with the pandemic: The number of working-age adults reporting “serious difficulty” thinking has climbed by an estimated one million people.

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