Respiratory infections can damage lungs
“Viral respiratory infections can lead to anything from a simple cough that lasts for a few weeks or months to full-blown chronic wheezing or asthma,” Martin said.
He added that when a respiratory infection is severe, recovery can be prolonged with a general increase in shortness of breath — even after lung function returns to normal.
Also, patients with COVID-19 who developed ARDS, a potentially life threatening lung injury that could require treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU), have a greater risk of long-term health issues.
Who is most at risk?
Not everyone who beats COVID-19 has the same risk of experiencing long-term consequences from the SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Those most at risk are “people 65 years and older, people who live in a nursing home or long-term care facility, people with chronic lung, heart, kidney and liver disease,” said Dr. Gary Weinstein, pulmonologist/critical care medicine specialist at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas (Texas Health Dallas). Additionally, he said others who could be at risk are those with compromised immune systems and people with morbid obesity or diabetes.
Weinstein added that there are particular health issues that patients with severe COVID-19 illness may face.
He said some patients will need to recover from pneumonia or acute ARDS and that many may require oxygen. Additionally, depending on the duration of the illness, many will be severely debilitated, deconditioned, weak, and could require aggressive rehabilitation.
“Finally, when patients have lung failure, they frequently have failure or dysfunction of their other organs, such as the kidney, heart, and brain,” emphasized Weinstein. However, “Patients with mild symptoms will recover faster and be less likely to need oxygen but will likely have weakness and fatigue.”