- Research continues to build around the effects of Covid-19 and Long Covid in people living with HIV (pwHIV). A new study in Clinical Microbiology and Infection of 18,000 pwHIV found that Covid-19 increased the risk of severe cardiovascular outcomes for these patients. The authors said the most common cardiovascular diseases they observed in pwHIV were blood clots in the lungs or legs, heart failure, and various heart diseases, especially in the first six months following infection. They emphasized the importance of Covid-19 vaccination as a preventative measure.
- “Evidence is accumulating on the link between Covid-19, its long-term neurological impact, and neurodegeneration,” the authors of a new review summarizing past research in this area wrote in the World Journal of Otorhinolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery. The authors stated that Covid-19 infection affects multiple parts of the brain, leading to symptoms and a pattern of degeneration similar to the onset of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. “Given the upsurge [of neurological disorders] that followed the Spanish Influenza pandemic…careful attention needs to be paid to the possibility that similar issues may arise as a result of infections with the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus,” they wrote.
- A clinical trial in Columbus, Ohio, is studying a drug used to treat Parkinson’s disease in people with Long Covid. The drug, Amantadine, is an antiviral and dopamine promoter that researchers think may help improve cognitive function in Long Covid. The trial, which is currently recruiting, will enroll 60 patients and last for four months. Contact: andrew.schamess@osumc.edu.
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