How to Treat Covid-19 Lung Scarring
Many people with severe Covid-19 develop fibrosis, a phenomenon that occurs when cells produce collagen protein in response to injury and clog up tissue. As Roxanne Khamsi reports in Elemental, there’s debate over the best way to treat this kind of lung damage. Scientists are testing expensive drugs to see if they can slow Covid-19’s impact on the lungs. Yet some say the tissue injury could reverse on its own. “Personally I am seeing quite a lot of fibrosis post-Covid, and the emerging data are quite a concern,” Gisli Jenkins, MD, PhD, a lung airway expert at the University of Nottingham, tells Khamsi. One recent study found that 65% of Covid-19 patients discharged from the hospital had some evidence of lung damage in scans three months later. However, the prognosis for this damage is uncertain. Read more below.
