Health Minister – Health sector continues to monitor, treat post – Covid health complications

Those who have recovered from Covid-19 are still prone to post covid effects to the heart, brain,
lungs and blood among other health complications.
This was the disclosure made by Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, who noted that the effects
may vary in different individuals depending on which organ of the body was affected the most.
Dr Anthony disclosed that because the way the virus is designed, it affects every single body
organ. “Now different persons would have different manifestations of the disease depending
which organ for that person was most infected or affected. Some people, if the virus would have
predominantly affected their brain, they continue even after being discharged from the hospital,
to have hallucinations, sometimes they have what is called brain fog, meaning in the midst of a
conversation, they kind of zoom out, they are not understanding what is going on around
them,” the minister explained.
The health minister stressed that some patients also experience heart problems, with symptoms
that mimic myocardial infection or heart attack. This issue has been observed in patients that are
younger. “Some persons who are 30 years old are having signs and symptoms of heart disease so
they get pain in their chest and so forth, so that we have to monitor as well, we have seen persons
who prior to covid, were not diabetics and after covid they would have presented with symptoms
of diabetes and again we are seeing people, not just with diabetes, but we are seeing people who
would have other types of diseases relating to the endocrine system,” he declared.
Minister Anthony said blood diseases have also been observed in post Covid-19 patients, but the
most common post Covid-19 complication is its effects on the lungs. “Quite a number of patients
would have damage to their lungs and therefore they will require physiotherapy to be able to help
them to breathe properly, and some of them, the damage can be very challenging to repair and
sometimes it is not reversible, so for a few of those patients they had to stay on oxygen and it
prevents them from working and a whole host of other things,” the minister revealed.
Minister Anthony reiterated that the health system now monitors these patients and get a
thorough history from the patient to know at what point they had covid and how to treat them.
“We have set up clinics at the various hospitals and these patients would normally come back
there for their treatment, in many cases it’s not in a specific discipline but you require a team of
professionals to be able to treat that person,” he noted.
Dr. Anthony reiterated his appeal to persons to guard against getting infected by being
vaccinated and to adhere to the national Covid 19 guidelines and health precautions.