Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => COVID-19 => Topic started by: EvaH on 04/08/2020 14:54:48

Title: Could asymptomatic people have invisible organ damage?
Post by: EvaH on 04/08/2020 14:54:48

Neville asks:

We know that COVID-19 also damages other organs, such as the liver, which may result in health problems and even shorten life for those people in the future. Is it possible that asymptomatic individuals may nonetheless be suffering invisible damage to such organs?

Can you help?

Title: Re: Could asymptomatic people have invisible organ damage?
Post by: chiralSPO on 04/08/2020 19:37:57

My understanding is that this may be possible. "asymptomatic" unfortunately doesn't strictly mean "no symptoms of the disease occurred," it means "no symptoms of the disease were recognized."

It took many weeks before people realized that "asymptomatic" individuals could be diagnosed by looking for loss of smell/taste, or "covid toes." (new symptoms were discovered)

There are anecdotes of individuals who are (otherwise) "asymptomatic," but developed blot clots, which then caused stroke. So I would imagine that there could be cases of individuals who are infected, don't present the "standard" fever/cough/malaise but could still sustain significant damage to liver or kidneys or what have you...

There is still so much we don't understand about this disease...