MUMBAI: The novel coronavirus can not only cause severe respiratory illness but also attack every major organ system in the body. Recently, doctors have been sounding the alarm about a disturbing new outcome: blood clots and strokes that strike even healthy young people with no known risk factors and sometimes no other symptom of the virus.

A report in the New England Journal of Medicine details the cases of five people, ages 33 to 49, in New York City who had strokes and subsequently tested positive for Covid-19. All of them had large-vessel strokes outside of the hospital before experiencing other severe symptoms of the virus.

Blood clots are also causing other unexpected problems for Covid-19 patients. For example, Broadway actor Nick Cordero, who has been hospitalized since March with severe Covid-19, had his right leg amputated earlier this month after doctors were unable to control clotting there.

And many patients are developing small-clots in their lungs, reducing the amount of oxygen they can move into their bodies.

Doctors and researchers are racing to understand why this is happening, and how they might be able to best use existing therapies, such as blood thinners, to mitigate it in patients.

Credits: MSN