Coronavirus can affect not only the lungs: what other organ is at risk?

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, doctors around the world have complained about the lack of mechanical ventilation devices, since the virus mainly affects the airways, and in severe cases penetrates the lungs, causing respiratory failure. Writes about this with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

However, recently, doctors in the United States and China have noted that among those infected, the number of people with kidney failure has sharply increased. As a result, hospitals are already experiencing an acute shortage of hemodialysis machines (“artificial kidney”), as well as medical staff who know how to treat such patients, not to mention the necessary drugs.

Since the new virus has so far been little studied, it is impossible to say with certainty whether it directly affects the kidneys or is it just a side effect of infection.

It is known that people who already have health problems and concomitant diseases usually carry Covid-19 harder than others. Many patients may simply not know that they have kidney problems.

But it is possible that it is an over-activation of the immune system: having discovered an unfamiliar infection, it begins to attack not only the virus itself, but also healthy cells of its own body, including such a sensitive organ as the kidneys.

According to one version, infected people often have blood clots in their vessels, and this, in turn, can also adversely affect the kidneys, pierced by a network of very thin capillaries.

On the subject: Which countries have the least chance of coronavirus and why

It is also known that the kidneys are closely related to the liver and bladder. And now, many doctors fear that if Covid-19 patients have kidney problems, it is possible that in the near future a wave of complications may also begin on the organs associated with them.

You cannot save to die

At the moment, all of this is just theory, although, as the experience of several previous epidemics shows, healthcare workers should prepare for the most unexpected scenarios for the development of infection.

Already, in many hospitals, doctors have to decide which patients to connect to hemodialysis machines and in what order, since there are not enough “artificial kidneys” for everyone.

In other words, only those who have a higher chance of survival need to be saved; more seriously ill patients may have to die without the necessary help.

The situation is aggravated by an acute shortage of nurses trained in hemodialysis.

According to the latest data from American doctors, from 20 to 40% of all patients admitted to intensive care with coronavirus suffer from serious renal dysfunction - and all of them require hemodialysis.

This has already led to a shortage of both the “artificial kidney” devices themselves and the medications necessary for this procedure, since no one expected such a sharp increase in the number of patients needing this procedure.

According to Dr. Barbara Murphy of Mount Sinai, an American hospital chain, in only one clinic, the number of patients in dire need of hemodialysis has tripled.

In the United States, only two large companies produce “artificial kidney” devices and all the materials necessary for them. Both report that demand for their products has increased fivefold - not only in the United States, but also in China and European countries.

On the subject: Quarantine in Antarctica: how the last continent lives without coronavirus

In some New York hospitals, doctors are forced to resort to a less effective and riskier method of blood purification - perinetoneal dialysis. It is usually used for milder kidney problems - but doctors say it's better than nothing.

Lessons learned from past epidemics

Little by little, scientists begin to understand exactly what organs the new coronavirus infects and how it does it.

In the early 2000s, the SARS epidemic spread to three dozen countries. Then scientists found that the causative agent of the disease, the SARS-CoV virus, penetrates the cells of the human body using two proteins: one is the cellular receptor ACE2, the other is the enzyme TMPRSS2.

It has now become clear that infection with the SARS-Cov-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, occurs almost identically - and this tells scientists which organs are most at risk. Specifically, the respiratory tract, intestines and, apparently, the kidneys, since it is there that both proteins necessary for the virus are present.

In addition, health systems in many countries have drawn conclusions from the HIV epidemic that began in the early 1980s.

On the subject: Coronavirus: when a medicine appears to treat COVID-19

Then they also said that the disease is dangerous only for representatives of certain risk groups, and for a long time it was believed that HIV only threatens homosexual men, as well as those who underwent a blood transfusion procedure or are of Haitian origin.

But after white heterosexual wealthy women began to die from AIDS, the authorities became worried and urgently changed the rules for testing new drugs and medicines - so that in extreme situations like an epidemic this could be done quickly, literally in months, not years.

About the same thing is happening now. Quarantine is introduced almost universally, and huge forces are thrown into the search for vaccines and specific medicines for the new coronavirus. Testing of some human vaccine prototypes has already begun.

But it can take a lot of time to develop a vaccine, and even more so drugs for coronavirus. It is possible that over time, Covid-19 will become just a chronic disease that can be controlled.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Which countries have the least chance of coronavirus and why

Quarantine in Antarctica: how the last continent lives without coronavirus

Coronavirus: when a medicine appears to treat COVID-19

Factcheck: Can turmeric and hot peppers protect against viral diseases?

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.