Coronavirus is not yet fully understood and it can cause symptoms that are already identified. How coronavirus affects the body is still under watch as it cause negative reactions in major systems.
Zoonotic coronaviruses (animal origin viruses) have jumped to human hosts like SARS and MERS. Both diseases cause colds, but unlike the two, coronaviruses will cause inflammation in many organs, and the COVID-19 is the more virulent strain of it. The World Health Organization (WHO) has prioritized it as a pandemic due to the increasing number of recorded cases and fatality.
In several weeks, the COVID-19 took 1,500 lives more than SARS, with increased disease infection that is overtaking everything thrown at it. Here's how coronavirus can affect the body:
Lungs
With COVID-19 the lungs are where ground zero is. It is transmitted by sneezing, coughing, or droplets that infects via close contact. It starts with flu-like symptom that is followed by fever, cough and progresses to pneumonia.
SARS attacks the lungs, with viral reproduction, and immune hyper-reactivity which affects it badly. Those with SARS has three stages, SARS is only a respiratory problems. But COVID-19 has lesser symptoms in most cases, and the rest is severe or critical.
Stomach
The occurrence of diarrhea was part of the MERS and SARS virus, that came from animals. More study is needed to know whether diarrhea is part of the COVID-19 outbreak. Patients with diarrhea and stomach pains are few. Why the virus have such symptoms is unusual too.
SARS and MERS can affect the digestive system causing leaking fluid resulting into diarrhea. Whether diarrhea is part of the COVID-19 symptoms, it can be that the same receptor as SARS.
Circulatory system
Coronaviruses affect other system in the body because of the hyperactivity of the auto-immune systems. A 2014 study concluded that 92% of MERS patients had signs of the coronavirus outside the respiratory system. This is one of the ways that the coronavirus affects the body, which is a result of not knowing how it works.
Indication of the COVID-19 effect on the blood is the effects of zoonotic coronavirus that includes higher liver enzymes, low white blood cell count, and lastly is low blood pressure. Other worst cases is kidney injuries and death by heart attack.
Liver damage
A normal liver will be able to release beneficial enzymes in the bloodstream and regenerate liver cells with ease. Another thing is the liver is a resilient organ that is not easily compromised, but the COVID-19 will attack it and cause serious problems to lead to complications.
Kidney
Just like the liver, the kidney will filter blood in the circulatory system which is an important function. It keeps waste from recirculating in the body. When it is affected by the coronavirus, it will allow waste products to fester, and affect our health. It cannot trap foreign bodies like a virus.
Pregnancy and the virus
There has been no positive transmission from mother to newborns, or any infants with the virus who are ill. Infection from mother to child is not yet seen so far, even if the mother is a carrier for the virus.
What is already known
These are the ways how coronavirus affects the body but there are more questions to be answered about it. Health organizations are scrambling to find out more to know how to deal with the contagion better.
