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The commotion over COVID-19's direct impacts has largely drowned out alarm over its longer-term effects. But as more survivors emerge from intensive care units, a chorus of voices, many tweeting under #LongCovid, are clamoring to be heard.

"These people are not just suffering from a lung problem. They're suffering from problems with their heart, their kidneys, their liver and very, very much their brain. And that's going to pose a big problem for recovery for millions and millions of COVID survivors," said Dr. Wes Ely, an intensivist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Nashville, Tennessee.

Dr. Ely, who co-directs the Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship Center at VUMC, has seen COVID-19 patients arrive with delirium, confusion and other neurological symptoms.

"We think that the virus itself may be directly causing some of these neurologic problems," he said.

But COVID-19 might also be making a bad situation worse. Because any ailment that requires an intensive care unit probably disrupts the body's supply of energy, raw materials or oxygen — losses the brain cannot easily withstand.

"It also doesn't do well when you have blood clots in the brain's blood vessels, which is happening a lot in COVID," said Ely.

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You still stand a high chance of succumbing to Covid-19 even after getting admission to intensive care unit, data from the Kenyan health ministry, which confirmed 497 new cases yesterday, show.

The figures show that 78 of the 225 coronavirus patients who had been admitted to ICU died, with five succumbing yesterday.

The ministry expressed fears that if the numbers of those requiring ICU care shoot up, hospitals will run out of space.

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Sometimes it seems like every article about the coronavirus is trying to scare you.

That’s especially true for articles about the long-term impacts of COVID-19. They tend to start the same way: introducing you to someone whose life was terrific before the virus and terrible now, due to some unexpected remaining symptom. There’s a transition sentence — “But Chad isn’t alone” — telling you that other people have this happen to them too. Doctors are interviewed about how likely this is, studies are referenced to the degree possible. Finally, the article returns to Chad, who just wishes he hadn’t gone to that get-together where he caught the virus in the first place.

Stories like this grab your attention, then fill in the details. But I think sometimes they can lack context, too. If we zoom in on one tree, we can miss some pretty important facts about the forest.

So how do we describe what we know about the forest? I found the format of a Reddit post really helpful, which riffed off of something then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once said. We can split up the forest into known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns.

• Known knowns are the things we know about the forest through careful observation and study.

• Known unknowns are the things we know we need to learn more about the forest. A cloud might be covering an overhead view, so we need to send an explorer over there to find out what’s going on.

• Unknown unknowns are the things that might happen that we aren’t even considering. A giant meteor might strike. That’d change our opinion of the forest pretty drastically.

Just over six months since we discovered the coronavirus, we can use that same approach to discussing where we are in terms of discovering its long-term impacts.

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Fighting and overcoming Covid 19 is difficult for many. Even after winning the fight, so many still deal with lingering health complications.

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Health experts are warning about a variety of possible coronavirus after effects — from long-term respiratory ailments to blood clotting to brain damage.

Even though most people experience only moderate symptoms, severe complications of the disease could lead to long-term effects, experts say.

“COVID-19 is not always a benign illness and there are lingering effects that may affect you even if you do not require hospitalization. This is something that people should avoid getting and spreading — we can’t take it lightly,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. COVID-19 symptoms include fever or chills, cough, difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, runny nose or congestion, nausea or vomiting and diarrhea.

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Background In April, 2020, clinicians in the UK observed a cluster of children with unexplained inflammation requiring admission to paediatric intensive care units (PICUs). We aimed to describe the clinical characteristics, course, management, and outcomes of patients admitted to PICUs with this condition, which is now known as paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS).
Methods We did a multicentre observational study of children (aged <18 years), admitted to PICUs in the UK between April 1 and May 10, 2020, fulfilling the case definition of PIMS-TS published by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. We analysed routinely collected, de-identified data, including demographic details, presenting clinical features, underlying comorbidities, laboratory markers, echocardiographic findings, interventions, treatments, and outcomes; serology information was collected if available. PICU admission rates of PIMS-TS were compared with historical trends of PICU admissions for four similar inflammatory conditions (Kawasaki disease, toxic shock syndrome, haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, and macrophage activation syndrome).
Findings 78 cases of PIMS-TS were reported by 21 of 23 PICUs in the UK. Historical data for similar inflammatory conditions showed a mean of one (95% CI 0·85–1·22) admission per week, compared to an average of 14 admissions per week for PIMS-TS and a peak of 32 admissions per week during the study period. The median age of patients was 11 years (IQR 8–14). Male patients (52 [67%] of 78) and those from ethnic minority backgrounds (61 [78%] of 78) were over-represented. Fever (78 [100%] patients), shock (68 [87%]), abdominal pain (48 [62%]), vomiting (49 [63%]), and diarrhoea (50 [64%]) were common presenting features. Longitudinal data over the first 4 days of admission showed a serial reduction in C-reactive protein (from a median of 264 mg/L on day 1 to 96 mg/L on day 4), D-dimer (4030 μg/L to 1659 μg/L), and ferritin (1042 μg/L to 757 μg/L), whereas the lymphocyte count increased to more than 1·0×10⁹ cells per L by day 3 and troponin increased over the 4 days (from a median of 157 ng/mL to 358 ng/mL). 36 (46%) of 78 patients were invasively ventilated and 65 (83%) needed vasoactive infusions; 57 (73%) received steroids, 59 (76%) received intravenous immunoglobulin, and 17 (22%) received biologic therapies. 28 (36%) had evidence of coronary artery abnormalities (18 aneurysms and ten echogenicity). Three children needed extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and two children died.
Interpretation During the study period, the rate of PICU admissions for PIMS-TS was at least 11-fold higher than historical trends for similar inflammatory conditions. Clinical presentations and treatments varied. Coronary artery aneurysms appear to be an important complication. Although immediate survival is high, the long-term outcomes of children with PIMS-TS are unknown.

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Covid-19, caused by the novel coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2, has led to a pandemic that is increasing the burden of mortality and morbidities throughout the world. It has brought many challenges including prevalence of disability and caused major disruption to healthcare services. About 12 million people around the globe have been infected by the virus so far, with a vast majority of them already recovered. However, half a million valuable lives have been lost due to this deadly disease. In addition, the virus may have a lasting effect on the body in general—as well as in major organs including lungs—for those who have survived the infection.

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COVID-19 survivors are now turning to each other to help validate their experiences. New support groups are popping up online to allow people living with or recovering from the coronavirus to discuss lesser-known symptoms and crowd-source best practices from health experts around the world.

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AUSTIN, Texas — When someone is hospitalized for COVID-19, they may not need to be put on a ventilator. But doctors say even having to be hospitalized for the virus could potentially leave lasting health complications for a patient – even after they're discharged.

Doctors say it's too early to fully understand what the exact common or rare long-term impacts of COVID-19 are, but some complications could arise.

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(INDIANAPOLIS) — Recovery from coronavirus may not end when the infection does.

25-to-40% of people who go on a ventilator get what’s known as post-intensive care syndrome, with
shortness of breath, fatigue, memory problems, and chronic pain. IU Health has three research studies in progress to assess whether coronavirus survivors’ longterm effects are different or more severe compared to other ICU survivors.

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EDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (IOWA'S NEWS NOW) — Hundreds of Iowans have been hospitalized since the pandemic began. Those that are critically ill could face challenges long after they return home.

That's because most patients that spend time undergoing intensive care undergo treatment plans that can save their lives, while permanently damage their mind and their body.

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TORONTO -- Eighty-seven days after first being admitted to hospital to battle COVID-19, Jessie Jacobs was finally discharged Thursday morning.

As the 76-year-old emerged from the hospital, accompanied by the applause of health care workers, the Ontario woman was greeted by family members who haven’t seen her since April.

When she found out she was cleared for discharge, after spending the last three months fighting for her life, she was “nervous,” she told CTV News.