3 ms·

This is definitely not unique for this virus. Viruses which cause respiratory illnesses are also affecting the heart. This is proven and studied.

• weikju 6y ago
  This study is comparing it against 4 other common coronaviruses that are not at all causing the same level of heart damage in such a large amount of patients..
  • lbeltrame 6y ago
    Yes, but other, non coronavirus infections can cause similar problems. The novelty is that it's a coronavirus causing this.
    • weikju 6y ago
      True. and how much it spread so quickly. This is called out in the study as well, that so many cases of heart issues are found because so many cases of the virus have happened already.
    • AstralStorm 6y ago
      Not really, as the paper itself says. It's been documented for MERS and SARS. COVID-19 is special with its higher likelihood of such problems and presence of immune infiltration of the infected heart, which causes more problems than the above two. It's much less discriminating in the kind of ACE2 receptor it uses to enter cells, meaning it can infect many more organs effectively and also spread more effectively, including zoonotic spread. I'd like to see if general ACE inhibitors do anything to it.