Brain fog plagues COVID-19 survivors

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‘I feel like I have dementia’: Brain fog plagues COVID-19 survivors
By Pam Belluck
The New York Times |
Oct 11, 2020 at 7:28 PM

... Scientists aren’t sure what causes brain fog, which varies widely and affects even people who became only mildly physically ill from COVID-19 and had no previous medical conditions. Leading theories are that it arises when the body’s immune response to the virus doesn’t shut down or from inflammation in blood vessels leading to the brain.

Confusion, delirium and other types of altered mental function, called encephalopathy, have occurred during hospitalization for COVID-19 respiratory problems, and a study found such patients needed longer hospitalizations, had higher mortality rates and often couldn’t manage daily activities right after hospitalization.

But research on long-lasting brain fog is just beginning. A French report in August on 120 patients who had been hospitalized found that 34% had memory loss and 27% had concentration problems months later.
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This needs to be more widely known.

Letter to the Editor

We are writing to highlight the potential for a post-viral syndrome to manifest following COVID-19 infection as previously reported following Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) infection, also a coronavirus [1]. After the acute SARS episode some patients, many of whom were healthcare workers went on to develop a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) – like illness which nearly 20 months on prevented them returning to work [2]. We propose that once an acute COVID-19 infection has been overcome, a subgroup of remitted patients are likely to experience long-term adverse effects resembling CFS/ME symptomatology such as persistent fatigue, diffuse myalgia, depressive symptoms, and non-restorative sleep.

Post-mortem SARS research indicated the virus had crossed the blood brain barrier into the hypothalamus via the olfactory pathway [2]. The pathway of the virus seemed to follow that previously suggested in CFS/ME patients, involving disturbance of lymphatic drainage from the microglia in the brain [3].One of the main pathways of the lymphatic drainage of the brain is via the perivascular spaces along the olfactory nerves through the cribriform plate into the nasal mucosa [4]. If the pathogenesis of coronavirus affects a similar pathway, it could explain the anosmia observed in a proportion of COVID-19 patients.

I don't want any more physical disabilities nor am I keen on adding COVID-19 brain fog to my executive functioning issues.