MedScape If your patients have been coming in with new asthma-like symptoms or sudden allergies to foods or the environment, long COVID could be to blame.
In an article published in Nature Immunology last December, researchers examined immunologic and inflammatory profiles in people with long COVID, comparing blood samples from patients who fully recovered from acute SARS-CoV-2 infection with those who developed prolonged symptoms. Their findings suggested long COVID is associated with persistent immune dysregulation, characterized by chronic inflammation, immune exhaustion, and disrupted energy metabolism. All of those could be contributing to the development of allergic reactions.
“While we have not examined allergies in our long COVID cohorts, it is plausible that SARS-CoV-2 infection could contribute to increased allergic responses,” said Malika Boudries, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard School of Medicine in Boston and first author of the study. “This hypothesis is supported by emerging evidence linking COVID-19 to immune dysregulation, including autoimmune phenomena and the reactivation of latent viruses such as Epstein-Barr virus,” she said.