Covid-19 more than a lung disease, it can lead to blood clots, say doctors

Clotting can develop in anyone who gets very sick and spends long periods of time immobile on a ventilator, but doctors say the problem seemed to show up sooner in Covid-19 patients.

As the coronavirus disease spreads through the United States, the doctors are noticing something strange happening to patients’ blood.

Health workers wearing protective suits prepare to transfer a patient to the surgical room from the Intensive Care Unit for the coronavirus disease patients at a hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, on May 13. (Reuters Photo)

Signs of blood thickening and clotting were being detected in different organs by doctors from different specialties. This would turn out to be one of the alarming ways the virus ravages the body, as doctors are starting to realise.

CNN reported that the development is frightening the doctors in the US. The channel spoke to Dr Scott Brakenridge, an assistant professor on the acute care surgery team at the University of Florida College of Medicine who said that the way this disease is manifesting itself is “curious and frustrating”.

He also said that in some cases, Covid-19 seems to be associated with multi-system organ failure.

Nephrologists at one of the hospitals in the US noticed kidney dialysis catheters getting plugged with clots. Pulmonologists monitoring Covid-19 patients on mechanical ventilators could see portions of lungs were oddly bloodless, news agency Reuters reported.

They are also worried about the age of victims skewing younger.

The doctors pooled their observations, and developed a new treatment protocol in the US - patients now receive high doses of a blood-thinning drug even before any evidence of clotting appears.

Meanwhile, a research published in the medical journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution last week said that the new coronavirus is adapting to different populations. The research was based on genetic analysis of samples from more than 7,500 people infected with Covid-19.

They found almost 200 recurrent genetic mutations of the new coronavirus - SARS-CoV-2 - that show how it may be evolving as it spreads in people.