The second wave of COVID-19 is slowly emerging and countries have to be prepared. However, this is still a fairly new disease, which scientists are still trying to figure out. Now researchers at UCL found that COVID-19 can have neurological complications, which include delirium, brain inflammation, stroke and nerve damage.

Scientists looked through the cases of 43 people who were either confirmed or suspected of having COVID-19 and were treated at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. They found 10 cases with transient encephalopathies (temporary brain dysfunction) with delirium and 12 cases with brain inflammation.

There were also eight cases of strokes, and eight others with nerve damage, mainly Guillain-Barré syndrome. Majority of the cases of brain inflammation were ADEM – a rare and sometimes fatal inflammatory condition. Doctors in London usually see one case of ADEM per month, but during the COVID-19 pandemic the frequency of this condition quadrupled.

Analysis showed that there was no SARS-CoV-2 virus in patients’ brain fluid. This means that the virus was not attacking the brain directly. Instead all of these symptoms were just complications of the whole viral infection. Scientists are not sure why in some cases COVID-19 causes such severe neurological complications.

One hypothesis is that brain inflammation was likely caused by an immune response to the disease. In other words, these complications can be rooted in the immune response rather than the virus itself. This is pretty interesting news, because we have to know our targets for an effective treatment against these complications.

COVID-19 is a new disease – it’s been around for less than a year. There are treatments emerging slowly, but it is going to be some time till we have solved this issue completely. And we still do not fully understand long-term effects of COVID-19, which is why studies like this are very important.

Dr Rachel Brown, first author of the study, said: “Our study advances understanding of the different ways in which Covid-19 can affect the brain, which will be paramount in the collective effort to support and manage patients in their treatment and recovery.” Further studies are needed, but scientists hope that this information will become bases for new researches into COVID-19 complications.

The second wave of COVID-19 is definitely incoming. Hospitals will be full of people again and you, probably, will have to stay at home more than usual. But scientists provided us with more knowledge so that we can deal with that second wave more effectively.

Source: UCL