Covid-19 Recovered Patients May Have Impaired Lung Function

After COVID-19 patients recover, their lung function may be impaired, and they may become breathless when they walk quickly. The conclusion was reached after the Hong Kong Hospital Authority conducted a study of the first batch of COVID-19 rehabilitation patients and made it public at a press conference on Thursday.
Observation results show that in this group of 12 people, 2 to 3 people’s vital capacity has changed, and they will breathe when walking fast.
Owen Tsang Tak-yin, medical director of the infectious disease centre at Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung, said: “After complete recovery, some patients’ lung function may decline by 20% to 30%.”
However, over time, patients can perform cardiovascular exercises such as swimming to improve their vital capacity.
Owen Tsang Tak-yin added that although it is too early to determine the long-term effects of the disease, scans of the lungs of 9 of these patients also found that all patients had “ground-glass-like lungs”, Indicates lung damage.
At present, the CT scan of the lungs of patients with COVID-19 is typically characterized by ground glass-like shadows, which is a phenomenon in which pulmonary effusion forms white spots. And the results of scanning the same COVID-19 patient at different time points show that as the condition worsens, the patient’s “frosted glass” becomes more obvious.
Not only that, but previous studies have shown that male patients infected with COVID-19 must be alert to testicular damage even after recovery.
At the end of February, authors of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published a new study stating that because of the enrichment of ACE2 by spermatogonia, a new coronavirus may attack the testes, threatening male reproductive function. The spermatogenic function will be blocked or even impaired.
All these indicate that, even after complete recovery, the COVID-19 virus may cause some damage to the patient’s body in the short term.