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Gut Microbiome Alters After COVID-19 Infection

Gut Microbiome Alters After COVID-19 Infection

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COVID-19 infection reduces the diversity of bacterial species in the gut. This can further endanger the patient's health.

Highlights:
  • An unhealthy gut increases an individual’s susceptibility to various diseases
  • The gut microbiome diversity is disrupted by the COVID-19 virus, increasing the risk of other infections
A person’s lungs are known to be affected by COVID-19. It can have long-lasting consequences on the brain. Currently, doctors believe that COVID-19 can impair your health in yet another way- through your stomach.
According to a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications, a COVID-19 infection can lower the diversity of bacterial species in the gut, allowing hazardous antibiotic-resistant bacteria to flourish.

“Our findings suggest that coronavirus infection directly interferes with the healthy balance of microbes in the gut, further endangering patients in the process,” said study co-senior author Ken Cadwell, a microbiologist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City.

A person who has an unhealthy gut is more susceptible to C. difficile, a dangerous bacterium that can cause life-threatening diarrhea. Additionally, it may result in other health issues like bloating and acid reflux.

According to experts, the study is the first to demonstrate that COVID-19 alone harms the gut flora. Doctors had previously suspected that the gut bacteria had been harmed by the use of antibiotics to treat COVID-19.

The majority of COVID-19 patients showed poor gut microbiome diversity, according to an analysis of over 100 men and women hospitalized with the disease in 2020. The researchers discovered that a single strain of bacteria dominated the guts of a full quarter of the animals.

Populations of several potentially dangerous bacteria grew concurrently. 20% of patients had some antibiotic-resistant germs that had entered their circulation.

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“Now that we have uncovered the source of this bacterial imbalance, physicians can better identify those coronavirus patients most at risk of a secondary bloodstream infection,” Cadwell said

Source-Medindia


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