How Mild COVID-19 Symptoms Can Quickly Turn Serious

Possibly life-threatening

- Himshikha Shukla

Experts are warning that mild COVID-19 symptoms can quickly escalate to serious, possibly life-threatening symptoms. While the majority of people with COVID-19 will either have mild or no symptoms, doctors say even those with mild symptoms should be on the lookout for worsening symptoms that could become serious.

“This disease can cause mild symptoms in someone, and then they recover in a couple of days or a week and do well after that. In contrast, they can be ill at some point prior to or after formal diagnosis, recover a lot or slightly, then get seriously ill 7 to 10 days later in what we think is likely related to immune dysregulation, or the cytokine storm we have all heard about,” says Dr. Dana Hawkinson, the medical director of infection prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System.

Cytokine storms refer to the overreaction of the body's immune system. They're a common complication in respiratory diseases, such as COVID-19 and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). When the virus that causes COVID-19 enters the lungs, it causes the immune system to respond and bring immune cells to the lungs to attack the virus. This causes inflammation.

OVER REACTING IMMUNE SYSTEM