This is the conclusion of a clinical study on patients with chronic intestinal diseases under the leadership of Herbert Tilg, Director of Internal Medicine I at the Innsbruck University Clinic. “It has never been shown in humans that virus residues appear to correlate with long-Covid symptoms,” said Tilg in the APA interview.
Specifically, 46 patients with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases were also examined for corona in the course of a gastrointestinal examination, said the renowned internist and gastroenterologist, who is also considered to be a leader in research. With these rather younger patients – most are between 20 and 30 years old – such a mirroring is done regularly. 65 percent of the patients with virus residues found in the intestine would have shown long-Covid symptoms such as tiredness and exhaustion. “And where no virus residues were found, there were no long-Covid symptoms either,” says Tilg about the main results of the study. Incidentally, the long-Covid symptoms would have existed regardless of the underlying disease.
In addition, 90 percent of those examined had gone through a mild corona disease. This shows again that it is by no means the case that long Covid is the result, especially in people with a severe course of the disease.
Tilg also came up with other remarkable findings about the study, which has just been published in the renowned journal “Gastroenterology”: In 32 patients, i.e. around 70 percent, there were still virus components or virus residues an average of 7.3 months after the corona infection been found in the small or large intestine mucosa, in over 50 percent still the virus protein.
Blood tests were also done to measure the antibody response to the virus. “The patients in whom the most viruses were found in the tissue have fewer antibodies,” the internist illustrated.
“All of this is not proof, but it is a strong indication that the body apparently has a problem in finally eliminating these virus components,” emphasized the doctor. To date, medicine has not yet found the exact reason for this and how the components can be completely erased. Incidentally, there are also other viral diseases where something similar is suspected, but these are much rarer, says Tilg.
Overall, it was obvious to use such a “patient group” for the study. Chronic inflammatory bowel diseases or the instrument of gastroscopy are virtually predestined for this, since such an examination is repeatedly necessary for these patients. In any case, you can’t “get into” every other organ area so easily – and with a proportionate, justifiable effort. Tilg emphasized that there is no proof of this, but it is also obvious that such virus residues can also be present in other organs such as the lungs, kidneys or liver.
Source: Nachrichten
