Covid-19 infection has an adverse effect on the patient's gut health, a new study by researchers from King's College London in the UK has found.
While severe Covid-19 can lead to breathing problems and high fever, some patients can experience diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, which suggests the involvement of the gastrointestinal tract.
The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, looked at samples of the gastrointestinal tract from patients who died after being diagnosed with Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic.
They found that the system that would normally regulate the composition of the microbial communities – otherwise known as Peyer's Patches – were severely disrupted in severe Covid-19, irrespective of whether there was evidence of virus present in the gut or not.