ISLAMABAD:A doctors’ association in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) said that the hospitals in occupied Jammu and Kashmir were witnessing rise in number of patients with severe post-Covid-19 complications.
According to reporter, Doctors Association Kashmir President and influenza expert Dr Nisarul Hassan said that they were getting many Covid patients with severe neurological complications weeks after recovery from the disease.
Dr Hassan said recovered Covid patients come with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), an autoimmune disorder of the peripheral nervous system in which the body’s immune system attacks the healthy nerve cells.
“Patients with GBS manifest with weakness of all four limbs, which in some cases progresses to respiratory muscle involvement needing ventilator support,” he said.
“Some patients lack the most classical manifestation of Covid-19 infection that makes it vital to think of Covid in every GBS patient in the context of current pandemic,” he added.
“We are seeing rise in cases of strokes in patients who have recovered from Covid-19,” Dr Hassan said.
Covid-19 increases the risk of blood clot forming, which causes blockage in the vessel to the brain that leads to stroke. The DAK president said patients who have recovered from Covid-19 return to hospitals with cardiac complications like myocarditis (inflammation of heart muscle) and even heart attacks.
“Cardiac complications are seen even in those who have no underlying heart disease and had experienced mild Covid-19 illness,” he said.
“Another serious post-Covid complication is that patients are coming with lung fibrosis, permanent scarring of the lung. These patients get readmitted with worsening hypoxemia and need long term oxygen therapy,” Dr Nisar said.
He said the number of patients with post-Covid issues could be higher as many with post-Covid symptoms like fatigue, lethargy, headache, body ache and joint pain were not reporting to hospitals.