Corona: Young people can also get seriously ill!

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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The coronavirus is only dangerous to old and sick people? That is not right.More and more often, younger patients end up in the intensive care unit.

"Even a young patient is not immune from having a difficult course," warned Clemens Wendtner, chief physician of infectious diseases at the Schwabing Clinic in Munich, last week. "That should shake up the fact that one adheres to the hygiene rules and regulations."

According to the doctor, young people who have been infected with the corona virus are being treated more and more often in intensive care units. That has already been shown in Italy - and "that is a picture that also emerges in Germany," said the doctor.

All age groups can become seriously ill

A recent report by the US health authorities confirms that people of all ages can become seriously ill. According to this, every fifth corona infected person under the age of 44 has had to be treated in hospital, and every twentieth was even in the intensive care unit.

Even if you survive it: being in quarantine for weeks, agonizing shortness of breath or even being connected to a ventilator - these are not good prospects.

Unclear long-term consequences of Covid-19

The long-term consequences of corona infections are also still unclear. There is now evidence that the lungs could suffer long-term damage - even with milder courses.

Infected younger people, however, still represent the greatest danger to others: They become infected much more often, but at the same time often notice little or nothing of it. This makes them dangerous not only to their grandparents, but also to their peers. They are particularly dangerous for people with previous illnesses: boys or older people with congenital heart diseases, cystic fibrosis or common ailments such as asthma.

You can not tell from every infected person that they carry the virus. But you don't see in every person that they are particularly at risk.

Tags:  Diagnosis organ systems interview