Mechanisms of Long COVID Remain Unknown but Data Are Rolling In

A year and a half into the pandemic, the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection are garnering more research attention as millions of long COVID patients emerge.

Written bySruthi S. Balakrishnan

| 13 min read

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Athena Akrami has not been well since March 2020, when she first experienced symptoms of a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Although the initial infection cleared within weeks, more than a year later Akrami still experiences fatigue, joint pain, and frequent fluctuations in her body temperature. Puzzled by seemingly normal blood tests, her doctors had not been able to pinpoint any obvious source of her condition, she says, though they suspect it is related to her bout of COVID-19. Then, during a recent clinical check-up for fertility treatments, one of Akrami’s doctors recommended that they look for any imbalances in her immune system, specifically, that they test the levels of inflammatory cytokines. This time, the results were not normal: her cytokine levels were elevated.

The role of cytokine storms, which occur when the overproduction of cytokines sets off a positive feedback loop of immune ...

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Meet the Author

Sruthi S. Balakrishnan
Sruthi S. Balakrishnan is a freelance science writer based in Bangalore, India. After spending her doctoral days poking fruit flies in the eye, she realized that she preferred writing about science more than doing science. She finished her PhD and made the ol’ pipette-to-pen transition in 2019. She now writes about things such as kleptomaniacal sea slugs and ants that can control their own gut microbes. Follow her on Twitter @sruthisanjeev.
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