Given that I came into the COVID-19 crisis with heart issues, I've been extra paranoid and extra cautious about catching the coronavirus: I'm a member of what they're calling a 'high-risk group'.
However, it looks like I, and a whole helluva lot of other people have much more to worry about, should the virus get a stranglehold on us. Based on observations from medical personnel from around the world, one in five patients infected with the COVID-19 show signs of heart injury during and after their treatment.
From Scientific American:
While the focus of the COVID-19 pandemic has been on respiratory problems and securing enough ventilators, doctors on the front lines are grappling with a new medical mystery.
In addition to lung damage, many COVID-19 patients are also developing heart problems—and dying of cardiac arrest.
As more data comes in from China and Italy, as well as Washington state and New York, more cardiac experts are coming to believe the COVID-19 virus can infect the heart muscle. An initial study found cardiac damage in as many as 1 in 5 patients, leading to heart failure and death even among those who show no signs of respiratory distress.
That could change the way doctors and hospitals need to think about patients, particularly in the early stages of illness. It also could open up a second front in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, with a need for new precautions in people with preexisting heart problems, new demands for equipment and, ultimately, new treatment plans for damaged hearts among those who survive.
Currently, cardiologists and virologists haven't got a clue as to whether COVID-19 attacks the heart as well as as the lungs. It makes sense that it might, I suppose: the heart and lungs are in your chest. So, for the virus, it's pretty much the equivalent of walking into a supermarket for some Huggies and picking up a case of beer. I mean, you're there anyway.
Finding an answer to the question of whether COVID-19 effects the heart could change how individuals diagnosed with the virus are treated, giving some priority to cardiac care, even if their COVID-19 symptoms are mild. This could potentially put more strain on already fragile healthcare systems, around the world. Add to this the fact that patients who develop heart problems require extensive aftercare, including a cocktail of medications, in some instances, and the viral quagmire we're all stuck in down at the coronavirus fuck-up farm becomes a whole lot more complicated.
Image via Flickr, courtesy of Robert Mattheu
