Some long-haulers face strange lingering symptoms months after COVID infection clears

Some people with the coronavirus experience strange symptoms that linger for months long after a negative test result deems them clear of infection.

Doctors are hesitant to make clear cause-and-effect relationships because there isn’t enough evidence to know if COVID-19, the disease the coronavirus causes, triggers the symptoms.

Among the peculiar and alarming symptoms reported by individuals, who experts call long-haulers, are early signs of Parkinson’s disease, scaly skin rashes and unpleasant tastes in their mouths.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey between April and June of nearly 300 infected individuals revealed that 35% had not returned to their “usual state of health” two to three weeks after getting testing.

And among 18-to-34 year olds with no underlying health conditions, one in five were still feeling symptoms in the same time frame, according to the CDC.

Here are some of the most recent reports of long-hauler symptoms that are perplexing doctors around the world.

Signs of Parkinson’s disease

At least three people aged 35, 45 and 58 in different countries have developed “clinical parkinsonism,” or Parkinson’s disease-like symptoms, within two to five weeks after contracting the coronavirus.

Tests revealed that all three patients, who had severe COVID-19 and required hospitalization, showed reduced activity in an area of their brains that produces the hormone dopamine — a common sign of Parkinson’s, according to a commentary published Oct. 21 in Trends in Neurosciences.

None of the patients had a family history of the disease, so the American researchers said the virus could have accelerated the “neurodegenerative process around a critical timepoint” in these individuals who may have been “destined” to develop Parkinson’s.

But there’s no telling if that’s the case.

“These cases do not prove a causal relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of parkinsonism... However, the rapid onset of severe motor symptoms in close temporal proximity to the viral infection is still suggestive of a causal link,” the researchers wrote in their commentary.

If the disease did kick start Parkinson’s, the team hypothesizes that the virus could have affected blood flow that damaged the brain, caused inflammation in the brain or infected brain cells directly.

Scaly skin rashes

A new study from the Massachusetts General Hospital found that nearly 1,000 coronavirus patients from 39 countries had skin problems long after their infection cleared.

Symptoms that ranged from measles-like rashes, tiny scaly bumps and raised red patches covered with a whitish buildup of dead skin cells lasted for a median of 12 days, with some long-haulers experiencing them for more than 60 days.

Two specific cases of COVID toes — discolored, swollen and rashy feet — lasted longer than 130 days, according to the doctor’s findings presented at the 29th Congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology meeting.

“This data adds to our knowledge about the long-term effects of COVID-19 in different organ systems. The skin is potentially a visible window into inflammation that could be going on in the body,” research senior author Dr. Esther Freeman, director of Global Health Dermatology at MGH, said in a news release. “We encourage clinicians taking care of patients with COVID-19 to ask about and evaluate any skin symptoms.”

Bad lingering taste in mouth

Many recovered coronavirus patients have reported a loss of taste, but some have been cursed with the opposite: an off-putting taste that no amount of teeth brushing or mouthwash could remove.

“I couldn’t eat anything. I would run to the garbage, gag, and spit out anything I would eat,” 11-year-old Aviva Epstein who ested positive for coronavirus told NBC New York. “I would eat pasta. I love it. It tasted gross, like rotten beef or rotten pork.”

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Odd tastes, particularly metallic ones, are somewhat common symptoms of different conditions such as gum disease, medicines, cancer treatments, pregnancy, indigestion and sinus infections.

And like other coronaviruses, such as those that cause the common cold, SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to cause a loss of smell and taste.

“By affecting the accuracy of the olfactory system, it’s changing the brain’s interpretation of what something tastes like,” Dr. Michael Rothschild, an ENT specialist with Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, told NBC New York.