BODY BLOW

MORE THAN JUST VIRAL PNEUMONIA, COVID IS WREAKING HAVOC ON THE BODY’S IMMUNE SYSTEM, PLACING PEOPLE WITH COMORBIDITIES AT MAXIMUM RISK

- SONALI ACHARJEE

Om Prakash Gupta, 68, had fever and a cough on April 22. His test results had been mixed up, and it was only on April 27 that he got a call saying he had tested positive and that an ambulance would becoming the next morning to take him to the state-run MR Bangur Hospital in Kolkata. Till that time, he had been home, walking, talking, and not complaining of any breathing difficulty. As had been arranged, the ambulance came to pick him up on April 28. He passed away that same evening in the hospital. His son, Raj Gupta, keeps asking how someone who seemed so normal could die so suddenly.

Across the world, there is a growing realisation that COVID-19 is more than just viral pneumonia. It causes death not just by infecting the lungs, but increasingly by triggering a malfunction in the body’s immune response system. There are no visible symptoms of the intense battle between the virus and the immune system within. The progression from moderate to severe can also be sudden, without any noticeable change in symptoms.