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Covid-19 Lung Infection Recovery Time

Published : Jun 24, 2021 3 mins read Updated On : Sep 26, 2022

Covid-19 has spread across all parts of the country and it is necessary for all Indians to understand the damage and recovery process & time of the virus in the second pandemic. Covid-19 is a part of the coronavirus family and is found to be a close relative of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) as both Covid-19 and SARS affect the human respiratory tract. Covid-19 primarily affects the lungs and may cause death due to ARDS or pneumonia.

Covid-19 Lung Infection Recovery Time - Fast&Up 

How does Covid-19 affect the lungs?

Covid-19-positive people who have mild/ moderate symptoms experience dry cough and sore throat and a few may have a lung infection like pneumonia which inflates the alveoli.

However, those who have severe symptoms can notice that both their lungs are affected due to infection. Swelling gets worse and lungs start getting filled up with fluid and debris. In such cases, people experience serious pneumonia and their air sacs get filled with mucus making it difficult for him/her to breathe. This leads to trouble breathing or feeling short of breath. The virus may also kill some healthy cells of the lungs in a few positive cases.

In critical Covid-19 cases, for those who experience symptoms at a severe level, the virus damages the inner walls and linings of the lungs. Inflammation and concentration of fluid are higher due to the immune system's response to fight against the Covid Lung infection making it quite hard to carry out the respiration process. Such people have to be given outside help from an oxygen concentrator or cylinder to provide the required O2 to the lungs. Severe Pneumonia or ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) can be found as well. Few instances are also found where clots get developed in the lungs, heart, brain, and legs which are life-threatening and few people even require lung transplants due to severe damage from coronavirus. 

Covid-19 affects lungs

Lung Infection Recovery Time

Covid-19 patients who have mild or severe symptoms generally have a lower lung infection and with the help of medical treatment and good nutrition, their lungs recover faster than those who have critical symptoms as they experience higher lung infection.

In a study conducted by Radboud University, the researchers carried out a lung function test and a CT scan after three months and saw that the lung tissues are recovering well. The damage had started to heal and the residual damage in the lung tissues had reduced considerably. Most of them complained about fatigue, shortness of breath, and chest pain. As Covid-19 has great similarities to ARDS or acute pneumonia, where fluid accumulates in the lungs, recovering from such conditions takes time and the level of recovery among those who took the test was quite encouraging.

Lung recovery time from the infection is a slow process and no expert can predict the exact time required to get rid of the infection from the lungs as many people are experiencing health complications even after many days of testing negative for the virus. The recovery quite heavily depends on the intensity of the symptoms and differs from person to person. Thus, a person has to keep practicing healthy habits in order to recover fully from the infection.

Measures To Adopt For Recovery

The process of recovery takes its own sweet time and one needs to ensure that he/she is taking enough rest and taking good care of his/her health in order to get back to a healthy state as earlier. The road to recovery involves many factors like medical treatment, staying fit via exercise, practicing breathing exercises to clear the lungs, and most important among all is good nutrition as nutrition that includes nutrients like Zinc, NAC, Vitamin C, Protein and multivitamins will help to heal lung damage, promote lung recover and ensure that health is restored as earlier.

Neel Visaria
Neel Visaria
Health and Fitness

Neel is an expert blogger who just loves writing about health and fitness. He makes sure that his blogs are fun to read but also informative. Neel is committed to spread awareness through his blogs... Read More

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