Health officials say the number of Americans receiving flu shots and COVID-19 treatments are down (Credit: FOX News/News Edge) LOS ANGELES - Fragments of COVID-19 left behind after your body's immune system has fought off all signs of infection may continue to trigger immune responses, researchers said in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) report published on Feb.
27. While most COVID-19 cases are mild, these ongoing immune responses could lead to life-threatening complications. Researchers said these fragments, when left behind, can trigger overactive immune responses, causing dangerous inflammation.
Researchers said that inflammation can impact many different areas of the body, even uninfected ones, resulting in common long COVID effects. "It’s not clear why SARS-CoV-2 can cause such inflammation while other coronaviruses responsible for common colds don’t," the NIH report read.
Long COVID refers to a "range of health problems that emerge, persist, or recur following acute COVID-19 illness," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.