New research says doctors treating COVID-19 patients wrongly
London, June 9, 2020 (AltAfrica)-Covid-19 patients are being treated by doctors wrongly, a new research has indicated.
The researchers said the doctors are prescribing the wrong treatment because they understand the virus infection to be a respiratory disease.
But doctors involved in the new research said the coronavirus is also a blood vessel disease, which explains why COVID-19 patients have experienced heart attacks, blood clots, and other ranging symptoms.
COVID-19, the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has been commonly described as a respiratory disease – one that primarily affects the lungs, and kills in a similar way to pneumonia
No harm of RAAS inhibitors in COVID – Potential benefit with ACE Inhibitors and Statins? Do these hypothesis generating findings once again point to the Vascular Disease in COVID-19?
— Mandeep R. Mehra, MD (@MRMehraMD) May 1, 2020
Cardiovascular Disease, Drug Therapy, and Mortality in Covid-19 | NEJM https://t.co/hxE701qvd5
But as doctors became more familiar with the disease, many noticed that COVID-19 patients suffered damage to a worrying range of vital organs across the body including the heart, brain and kidney.
Now, doctors say that the evidence is growing that coronavirus is also a vascular infection – one that can infect blood vessels – which would explain the range of symptoms it causes.
“All these Covid-associated complications were a mystery. We see blood clotting, we see kidney damage, we see inflammation of the heart, we see stroke, we see encephalitis [swelling of the brain],” said Dr. William Li, speaking to Medium’s Elemental+.
“A whole myriad of seemingly unconnected phenomena that you do not normally see with SARS or H1N1 or, frankly, most infectious diseases,” added Dr. Li, who is the president of the Angiogenesis Foundation, a nonprofit organization that studies how to fight disease through the process of developing new blood vessels.
Dr. Mandeep Mehra, medical director of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart and Vascular Center, told Medium that these symptoms suggest that the virus is probably a “vasculotropic virus, meaning that it affects the [blood vessels].”
“The concept that’s emerging is that this is not a respiratory illness alone, this is a respiratory illness to start with, but it is actually a vascular illness that kills people through its involvement of the vasculature,” Dr. Mehra told Medium.
Why is Covid-19 so different from other viruses? How can you protect yourself from the virus? What is needed to defeat Covid-19? I dive into all of this on my podcast episode with The Health Hub "Covid-19 – What We Know. What We Need To Know." https://t.co/2lE5xIp1L0 pic.twitter.com/QuHoe3jaGB
— William Li (@drwilliamli) May 15, 2020
Ventilators not enough
If COVID-19 is a vascular infection, it could explain why people with pre-existing conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease are at greater risk from a virus that is supposedly meant to target the lungs and respiratory system.
The re-classification of coronavirus could change the way the scientific community approaches the disease, and may help drive new forms of treatment.
Healthcare workers have focused on providing ventilators to patients to ensure they can breathe while their lungs are infected, leading to respirators becoming a prized commodity at the heart of a global competition.
Read more: Coronavirus: Inside the global war for ventilators
A doctor inspects a ventilator. (File photo: AFP)
But understanding the disease as infecting blood cells could help explain why ventilators have often not been enough to ensure patients can breathe – ultimately key to their survival.
Dr. Li recently co-authored a study that found widespread evidence of blood clots in the lungs of COVID-19 patients. These blood vessels are essential to providing the rest of the body with oxygen, and would not be affected by a respirator.
“If you have blood clots within the blood vessels that are required for complete oxygen exchange, even if you’re moving air in and out of the airways, [if] the circulation is blocked, the full benefits of mechanical ventilatory support are somewhat thwarted,” explained Dr. Li to Medium.
