Although first termed to be a respiratory disease, scientists uncover that the virus affects a variety of organs, making them wonder if it is actually a vascular disease?
The novel virus COVID-19 which emerged last year is infecting millions and has claimed over 300,000 lives worldwide. There are rising concerns that the number of actual cases are higher than the reports.
With new symptoms being found every day, and the virus affecting much more organs than respiratory systems, experts wonder if the disease is actually vascular and not respiratory. Coughing, sneezing, and shortness of breath are still considered the primary symptoms of COVID-19. Yet according to a study from Germany, reports that only a fraction of the infected cases are being detected.
One of the many uncommon symptoms includes blood clots and skin rashes. A study performed in Italy noticed red itchy skin rashes on the upper body of the infected. With a number of cases showing signs of blood clots and thousands dying from cardiovascular complications, make researchers now believe that COVID-19 is more than a respiratory disease- A vascular disease.
“All these COVID-related complications were a mystery to us. We see blood clotting, we see kidney damage, we see inflammation of the heart, we see stroke, we see encephalitis,” quoted William Li, president of the Angiogenesis Foundation, He further added, “Countless seemingly unrelated phenomena that are not normally seen in SARS or H1N1, or to be frank, aren’t seen in the majority of infectious diseases.”