Long Covid: Research suggests virus can survive in hidden ‘viral reservoirs’ – symptoms

Long Covid victim discusses daily impact of virus

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The study found Covid-negative patients who had fragments of the virus in their faeces were more likely to experience symptoms of long Covid.

Furthermore, authors of the study suggest the coronavirus infects the gut and, in long Covid patients, continues.

They believe COVID-19 is stored in viral reservoirs and from here feeds into the rest of the body.

This theory could potentially explain why some people develop long Covid.

Although this study provides one avenue of causation, there are a couple of caveats to the research, the small sample size (just 113 participants) and the lack of existing research on these viral reservoirs.

As a result, more research with larger sample sizes is required to draw a definitive conclusion.

Study author Dr Ami Bhatt said of the results: “No one really knows what causes long Covid.

“Maybe long Covid – and the wide variety of symptoms it causes – is due to the immune system’s response to viral proteins in hidden reservoirs throughout the body.”

Long Covid can cause a variety of symptoms including but not limited to:
• Respiratory difficulties
• Chest tightness
• Chest pain
• Brain fog
• Dizziness
• Pins and needles
• Diarrhoea
• Anxiety
• Skin rashes.

One of the challenges of long Covid is the symptoms vary from person to person rather than having a consistent pattern.

This isn’t the first time COVID-19 has been found to have negative long-term impact on the body.

Recent studies have also found it can increase a person’s risk of heart failure, heart attack, and stroke by over 50 percent.

As a result, health professionals are calling for more resources to be put into bolstering the health system so it can cope with numbers of long Covid patients.

This comes at a time when the NHS is trying to reduce its backlog of patients, exacerbated by the pandemic.

As well as coping with physical health problems caused by the pandemic, the NHS IS also trying to cope with the psychological issues.

In the aftermath of national lockdowns there has been a steep rise in the number of people developing mental health disorders.

Such is the level of the mental health crisis NHS leaders have described it as a “second pandemic”.

This adds yet more strain to a strained health system, recovering after two years of conflict with COVID-19.

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