OREANDA-NEWS. Neurological complications are observed in 80% of those who suffered severe COVID-19 and were in the hospital, Natalya Suponeva, the head of the neurorehabilitation and physiotherapy department, scientific consultant of the Center for Peripheral Nervous System Diseases of the Scientific Center of Neurology, said at a press conference.

According to various sources, neurological complications develop after COVID-19 in 7% to 84% of cases, she noted and added that such a connection is clearly traced for moderate to severe forms of coronavirus infection.

This happens because to the effect of the virus itself on the body, the influence of "the critical state in which the patient is" and the effect of the drugs given to him are added.

Changes in smell and taste appear in more than a third of people after COVID-19. Also, a third have headaches and chronic fatigue syndrome. Less often, encephalopathy (changes in the brain, which are impaired memory, concentration of attention) and stroke are possible.

Rarely, patients with COVID-19 have a number of autoimmune diseases, including Guillain-Barré syndrome (a disease characterized by peripheral paralysis, muscle weakness) and various autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system.

Those who have recovered also have neurological postcoid syndrome, which can occur much later than receiving negative PCR tests. According to Suponeva, among the symptoms of the syndrome are a decrease in daily activity, fatigue not associated with exercise, impaired attention and memory.

"People carry the coronavirus infection, return to school, to their duties and cannot cope with them, and this is really a very big problem," she added.