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Changes to blood cells caused by the coronavirus may explain why so many patients suffer from long Covid, researchers say.
German researchers have found that the virus alters the size and stiffness of red and white blood cells, making it harder to get oxygen and nutrients around the body.
Their small study of 55 people found that these changes can last for several months, which may explain why many Covid patients become ‘long haulers’.
They believe the disruption to oxygen flow is the root of the common symptoms which plague long Covid patients – breathing issues, tiredness and headaches.
But these physical alterations to the blood cells may also explain why some very sick Covid patients develop blood clots or suffer organ damage.
Scientists from the Max Planck Center for Physics and Medicine in Germany, who made the finding, analysed blood samples of current and former Covid patients and compared them to healthy volunteers.
Long Covid is an umbrella term encompassing symptoms that persist for more than a month and is poorly understood.
But official figures suggest hundreds of thousands of people across the UK have been suffering from the condition.
Fatigue was the most common symptom, affecting an estimated 535,000 people, followed by shortness of breath striking 397,000 and muscle ache hitting 309,000, according to the Office for National Statistics
The researchers found that blood cells were different sizes and shapes in people who were healthy (left), previously had the virus (middle) and had currently had the virus and were hospitalised (right). The graphs show how deformation increased slightly for people who had the virus, while those currently infected had cells that were much more deformed
The graph on the left estimates what blood cells look like in health (grey), recovered (green) and currently infected (yellow) patients
The researchers found volunteers who had Covid suffered poorer blood circulation, limited oxygen transport and blood clots.
‘These are all phenomena in which the blood cells and their physical properties play a key role,’ they said in their report, which was published last month in Biophysical Journal.
The scientists examined over four million blood cells from 17 patients acutely ill with Covid aged between 41 and 87, from 14 people aged 27 to 76 who recovered and from 24 healthy people aged 26 to 81 as a comparison group.
They measured the shape of red and white blood cells using a microscopic camera and analysed the data on a computer.
Red blood cells – vital for carrying oxygen and nutrients around the body – were found to be drastically different sizes and shapes in Covid patients.
The researchers believe this can make blood clumpy and therefore harder to get oxygen around the body.
Additionally, they found that the size and shape of white blood cells – a key part of the immune system – in patients with the virus were also found to be deformed in Covid patients.
The researchers believe the combination of damage to both red and white blood cells was behind long-Covid.
It comes after official figures suggested hundreds of thousands of people across the UK have been suffering from long Covid.
Nearly one million people were found in May to be experiencing long Covid – defined as symptoms which last for more than four weeks after infection, according to the Office for National Statistics.
An estimated 385,000 were struggling with persistent symptoms that had gone on since last summer.
Around two-thirds of those with long Covid said it restricted their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. Symptoms include organ failure, tiredness, shortness of breath, hair loss and brain fog.
Fatigue was the most common symptom, affecting an estimated 535,000 people, followed by shortness of breath striking 397,000 and muscle ache hitting 309,000.
Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus, said: ‘We’ve heard how the patchwork of support services for long Covid patients is already overstretched.’
Previous research has estimated that as many as two million people in England could be suffering ongoing symptoms after a Covid-19 infection.
It comes after a study found that only a small proportion of cases of long Covid are being recorded by GPs.
Experts from Oxford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said their study raised questions about how long Covid is diagnosed, recorded and managed in the NHS.
They found that only 23,273 cases were formally recorded between February 2020 and April 2021 at GP practices in England.
More than a quarter of practices had never logged a case, according to the article in the British Journal of General Practice.
Ms Moran said: ‘Covid is not like the flu, it can cause long-term serious illness in otherwise young and healthy people, including children.
‘Even those who are not hospitalised have a risk of developing this debilitating condition, leaving them needing ongoing support for many months to recover.’
She added: ‘The new Health Secretary must consider the impact of long Covid ahead of lifting restrictions on July 19 to prevent another wave of cases that could have a devastating impact on our health service and economy.
‘Gavin Williamson must also consider the risk posed by long Covid to pupils as part of plans to relax Covid measures in schools.
‘The Government’s current approach risks condemning thousands more people to live with the cruel impact of long Covid while struggling to access the support they need.’
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