Corona increases Alzheimer's risk

[Miss Ifeoluwa]

The corona virus has long been associated with various nervous diseases. It is now clear, those who have tested positive for Covid-19 have a higher risk of developing neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's - this is the result of a new, large-scale study from Denmark, for which the health data of more than half of the population are collected had been analyzed.

As part of the new study, the researchers looked more closely at data from 919,731 people who had been tested for Covid-19. Of these, 43,375 had received a positive result. And among these patients, the authors found a 3.5-fold increased risk of developing Alzheimer's.

The risk for Parkinson's was 2.6 times higher and for a cerebral infarction 2.7 times higher. The risk of suffering a cerebral hemorrhage was even increased almost 5-fold.

The study, presented at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress, analyzed inpatients and outpatients in Denmark between February 2020 and November 2021, as well as influenza patients from the corresponding period before the pandemic. The researchers used statistical methods to calculate the relative risk.

Covid-19 patients also had a 1.7-fold increased risk of cerebral infarction

"For more than two years after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the exact nature and development of the effects of Covid-19 on neurological diseases remained unclear," said Pardis Zarifkar from Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen and lead author of the study, according to a statement.

Earlier While studies have found an association with neurological syndromes, Zarifkar said, it remained unclear whether Covid-19 also affects the incidence of certain neurological disorders - and whether it differs from other respiratory infections .

It is now clear that the risk of nervous diseases is higher for Covid 19 patients than for those who did not have it - but not higher than for people who have been diagnosed with the flu or another respiratory disease.

However, there is apparently one difference: Covid-19 patients had a 1.7-fold increased risk of a cerebral infarction compared to over 80-year-old inpatients with flu or bacterial pneumonia.

However, the frequency of other nervous diseases such as multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, Guillain-Barré syndrome and narcolepsy did not increase after Covid-19, flu or pneumonia.