Covid 19 & neurosciences: an introduction

The outbreak last December in China of a new coronavirus, SARS Cov2, has highlighted the limits and vulnerabilities of the health systems worldwide. First considered as a local problem, the virus has demonstrated its powerful ability to spread between humans, triggering a pandemic (CoViD 19, Coronavirus Disease 2019) responsible for more than 610.000 deaths worldwide up to mid-July 2020 (more than 1.600.000 in December 2020). First thought to affect the sole respiratory system, the virus was however rapidly suspected to exert additional potential deleterious effects, in particular in the Peripheral and Central Nervous System. But were such effects really unexpected? The history of biomedicine illustrates that the suspected intricate relationship between viral infections and acute -or chronic- neurological and psychiatric disorders is not a new topic … Viruses may indeed establish some dormancy and mild infections are now suspected to exert much more deleterious effects than previously thought. Could even asymptomatic patients be at risk of late virus-induced neurological and psychiatric diseases ? Beside some historical interest, examining lessons from the past should obviouly draw our attention on potential middle to long term consequences of Covid on neurological and psychiatric health.

PP

Viruses & nervous system disorders: insights from other pandemics

Everyone knows about the terrible Spanish flu that killed an estimated toll of 17 to 50 million people worldwide after the First World War. However, much less is known about the “Encephalitis... read more