Respiratory Complications And Covid-19

Running head: RESPIRATORY COMPLICATIONS AND COVID-19 1
Complications of Infections Associated with Coronavirus in the Respiratory System
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Introduction
Coronavirus, which emerged as a new infectious viral in the year 2019, is also referred to
as COVID-19. It affects the respiratory tract, and it was first recognized in the city of Wuhan,
China, in December 2019. The virus is a zoonotic viral disease that is present in animals such as
bats and camels. Through mutations, it began infecting human beings. According to the genetic
sequence of the virus, it can be categorized as a beta coronavirus and closely concomitant to the
SARS virus (1) (Wang et al., 2020). Many persons with coronavirus only develop uncomplicated
or mild illnesses. COVID-19 can become more complicated as it is associated with other viral
infections such as pneumonia, sepsis and septic shock, failure of some organs, and the acute
respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Some of the first symptoms associated with coronavirus
include; coughing, high fever, sneezing, shortness of breath, and headache (Khalid et al., 2016).
There is no proven treatment for coronavirus that has been proven up to now.
The outbreak of COVID-19 disease was a result of a novel coronavirus, which has been
recently renamed as SARS-CoV-2. The disease spreads rapidly and in simple ways of
transmission around the world. These modes of transmission include droplets of cough or sneeze
from an infected person and also fluid contact from an infected to a healthy person. The world
cases of COVID-19 were 424,048, while there were 18.946 deaths (Badawi & Ryoo, 2016). The
respiratory system, which is mostly affected by a coronavirus, comprises different organs and
tissues that help in gaseous exchange in the body. The virus infects the lining of the lungs, throat,
and airways. Respiratory symptoms include shortness of breath and coughing, and it can result in
severe damage to the lungs within a short period. When the condition of coronavirus worsens,
one may develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, which leads to breathing difficulties. The
immune system of an individual is the one that can identify and respond to the coronavirus by

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producing special proteins/ antibodies to fight the disease. The high fever in a person with
coronavirus is a result of the side effect of the immune system responding to the infection. The
substances released by the white blood cells that bring about high fever are called pyrogens
(Chang et al., 2020).
Complications Associated with Coronavirus
Pneumonia
Pneumonia occurs to a patient with coronavirus when the virus causes infection on one or
two lungs. The situation that makes the patient unable to breathe is that the tiny air sacs of the
lungs are filled pus or fluid. The influenza virus is the one known to cause bacterial pneumonia.
In this case, where a COVID-19 patient develops pneumonia, it can be termed as a secondary
infection. Pneumonia affects people with compromised immune systems, such as in children and
older people (Shen et al., 2020). This is where the influenza virus weakens the protective
mechanisms of the lungs creating a favorable environment for the bacteria to enter and multiply.
A coronavirus causes pneumonia in two ways. The first one and the most common is where the
virus establishes itself in the lungs, and the other one is where pneumonia develops as secondary
bacterial infection (Chen et al., 2020).
Direct viral damage
This is the most common way in which coronavirus causes the disease. Direct damage by
the virus results in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The coronavirus attaches itself to
one of the receptors located in the lung tissue. This creates a means where the virus enters the
cells in the lungs, and it is also through this receptor that the SARS coronavirus enters the lung
cells. The infection obstructs with the host’s mechanism cells and makes more copies of itself. It

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then kills the mechanism cells and takes over the complete control of the host cell. When host
cells die in large numbers, then the organ fails to function properly. Recent studies from the
postmortem of SARS coronavirus deaths have shown that the SARS coronavirus also affects
other organs in the body rather than lungs, for example, kidneys (Chen et al., 2020).
Sepsis
Sepsis is a severe condition that can be caused by many contagions. It develops when the
body's immune system responds to the pathogen excessively. It is difficult to determine whether
the damage caused by coronavirus results from a direct viral infection or indirect immune
response. Up to now, there is neither intervention nor a drug that has been able to reduce this
excessive immune response. There are no treatments among those that have been proposed for
coronavirus has shown to work (Chen et al., 2020).
Hospital care complications
These are the complications that are associated with those who require hospital care. The
complications include diseases from the intravenous lines (for medication/ drips) or urinary
catheters (flexible tubes used to empty urine from the bladder), Pneumonia, and other non-
infectious complications like pressure sores or falls. Studies have shown that 10% of the patients
in the hospital have healthcare-acquired infections, and 5% of them have pressure sores.
Healthcare workers try so hard to prevent such complications through thorough disinfecting of
the hospital’s equipment and their hands while delivering services to the patients. However,
these complications still exist in those patients who have a long term admission in the hospital.
Coronavirus has shown several symptoms or complications to the respiratory system as one of
the respiratory viral infections, and healthcare workers delivering services to the COVID-19

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patients have to be cautious, so has to give the appropriate medical care to all patients in the
hospital (Jin et al., 2020).
Conclusion
This essay has discussed the respiratory complications associated with the COVID-19.
Coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China. The spread of the disease is very rampant, and the
pandemic that has been felt in the whole world. This paper has analyzed and discussed several
complications that are caused by the disease. Coronavirus is known to interfere with the
respiratory tract. It affects the lungs and suppresses the immune cells in the lungs taking control
over the lung tissue. Some of the complications that are associated with coronavirus that been
discussed in detail within this essay include; pneumonia, direct viral damage, sepsis, and hospital
care associate infections.

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