COVID-19 can cause a scope of breathing problems, from mild to critical. In this case grown-ups and individuals who have other health conditions like heart disease, diabetes , and cancer may have more serious symptoms.
This is what the new coronavirus does to your lungs.
Coronavirus and Your Lungs
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is part of the coronavirus family.
At the point when the infection gets in your body, it comes into contact with the mucous layers that line your nose, mouth, and eyes. The infection enters a healthy cell and uses the cell to make new virus parts. It duplicates, and the new virus infects close by cells.
Think about your respiratory tract as an upside-down tree. The storage compartment is your trachea, or windpipe. It parts into smaller and smaller branches in your lungs. Toward the end of each branch are tiny air sacs called alveoli. This is the place oxygen goes into your blood and carbon dioxide comes out.
The new coronavirus can infect the upper or lower part of your respiratory tract. It goes down your airways. The covering can get irritated and inflamed. In some cases, the infection can reach at all the route down into your alveoli.
COVID-19 is another condition, and researchers are learning more consistently about what it can do to your lungs. They believe that the impacts on your body are like those of two different coronavirus diseases, acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
Mild and Moderate Cases
As the disease travels your respiratory tract, your immune system fights back. Your lungs and airways swell grow and become inflamed. This can begin in one piece of your lung and spread.
About 80% of individuals who have COVID-19 get mild to moderate symptoms. You may have a dry cough or a sore throat. A few people have pneumonia, a lung disease where the alveoli are inflamed.
Specialists can see indications of respiratory inflammationon a chest X-ray or CT scan. On a chest CT, they may see something they call "ground-glass opacity" since it would seem like the frosted glass on a shower door.
Severe Cases
About 14% of COVID-19 cases are severe, with an infection that affects the two lungs. As the swelling deteriorates, your lungs load up with liquid debris.
You might also have more serious pneumonia. The air sacs load up with bodily fluid, mucus, and different cells that are attempting to battle the infection. This can make it harder for your body to take in oxygen. You may experience difficulty breathing or short of breath. You may also breathe faster.
If your primary care physician takes a CT scan of your chest, the opaque spots in your lungs look like they begin to interface with one another.
Critical Cases
In critical COVID-19 - about 5% of total cases - the disease can harm the walls and linings of the air sacs in your lungs. As your body attempts to battle it, your lungs become progressively aggravated and load up with liquid. This can make it harder for them to swap oxygen and carbon dioxide.
You may have serious pneumonia or intense respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). In the most critical cases, your lungs need assistance from a machine called a ventilator to carry out their responsibility.
COVID-19 Complications
It can require some time to feel better after you have pneumonia. You may feel more worn out than expected for some time. You might also find that you can't exercise like you used to.
A few people had a cough significantly after they recovered from COVID-19. Others had scarring in their lungs. Specialists are still studying whether these impacts are permanent or might heal after some time.
The George Washington University Hospital in DC has released a 3D video of a 59-year-old male coronavirus patient’s lungs just days after showing no symptoms at all
The George Washington University Hospital in DC has released a 3D video of a 59-year-old male coronavirus patient’s lungs just days after showing no symptoms at all
The video itself shows extensive damage and inflammation shown in yellow. A pair of healthy lungs would show no yellow areas at all.
The patient now needs a ventilator to breathe and a separate machine to circulate and oxygenate his blood.
“This is not a 70, 80-year-old immunosuppressed, diabetic patient,” Keith Mortman, the chief of thoracic surgery at George Washington University Hospital, told CNN. “Other than high blood pressure, he has no other significant medical issues. This is a guy who’s minding his own business and gets it.”
“For these patients who essentially present in progressive respiratory failure, the damage to the lungs is rapid and widespread,” Mortman told CNN. “Unfortunately, once damaged to this degree, the lungs can take a long time to heal. For approximately 2-4 percent of patients with Covid-19, the damage is irreversible and they will succumb to the disease.”
“I want people to see this and understand what this can do,” Mortman said. “People need to take this seriously.”
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