Coronavirus Lung Damage16 Mar 2020 11:14
eople who recover from COVID-19 can still be left with substantially reduced lung functions, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority has found after observing the first wave of patients discharged after becoming infected by the novel coronavirus.
The doctors made the observations after studying a group of 12 patients who had recovered, rather than as part of a wider-ranging study.
They found a drop of 20% to 30% in lung capacity in two or three out of them.
"They gasp if they walk a bit more quickly," a top infectious diseases expert said, according to the South China Morning Post. He added, however, that patients could do cardiovascular exercises to improve their lungs.
While it's too early to establish long-term effects of the illness, scans of nine patients in the group suggested that recovered patients had sustained organ damage, the Post reported.
Out of a global total of 128,000 infections, some 70,000 have recovered. More than 4,700 have died.
The illness — which presents symptoms including fever, breathlessness, and a cough — affects the elderly and those with preexisting symptoms the most.
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