Those with this symptom should not be “freaked out”, Dr Chin-Hong said. Some people may also feel a burning sensation inside their mouths. “I know it looks really scary to people,” he said, but the affliction is generally temporary. Even before Covid-19, doctors saw patients with hairy tongue related to viral infections, smoking, antibiotic use and poor hygiene, he said, adding: “It’s more common than people think.” Healthy tongue cells rapidly replace themselves, Dr Chin-Hong said, but if older cells linger and build on top of one another, this forms a dark, thick, fuzzy overgrowth, often called hairy tongue. That means an ear, for example, which the virus would typically not impact, may become inflamed, not function as well and potentially ache.Ĭovid-19 also leaves patients in a weakened state, he said, which means pathogens lingering around their bodies from previous infections – like herpes or the virus that causes shingles – can reactivate, causing rashes or cold sores in the wake of Covid-19. If the virus gets into the bloodstream and impacts multiple parts of the body, immune cells flock to those areas, Dr Chin-Hong said. Inflammation could also be a culprit, said Dr Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.
But it is unclear whether these symptoms are directly caused by the virus, or by the body’s response to it.
Antiviral treatments like Paxlovid may potentially alleviate symptoms like a Covid-19-related rash, perhaps because they can reduce the amount of virus in your blood, said Dr Kelly Gebo, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
0 kommentar(er)
