What a distinguished contagious diseases medical professional found out when he got COVID-19

Dr. Michael Saag is one of the nation’s finest authorities on the coronavirus– not just due to the fact that he’s researched viruses for more than three years, however also because he recently recovered from the illness himself.

Saag has actually published research on HIV/AIDS going back to the 1980 s. He now functions as the associate dean for worldwide health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in addition to the director of UAB’s Center for AIDS Research Study.

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He was diagnosed with COVID-19 simply over one month back, on March16 He explained the illness as a “horror” that consisted of fever, muscle aches, fatigue and trouble thinking.

Now completely recovered, Saag, a transmittable diseases physician, treats other COVID-19 clients at a clinic in Birmingham.

NBC News consulted with Saag recently about his experience with the disease, which he recuperated from without requiring to be hospitalized. The conversation has actually been gently edited for length and clarity.

NBC News: Speak about your individual experience with COVID-19 How did the disease impact you?

Saag: It’s been an interesting flight; a frightening roller rollercoaster, and every night is horrible. The mornings are better, however it sort of teases folks– myself included– into believing that it’s going away. And then, boom,! It comes right back. For me, that went on for 8 days in a row.

The nights are so bad, due to the fact that as a doctor, I know what can take place. Therefore I would sit awake, counting the minutes till early morning nearly, questioning if my breathing was going to get worse and I ‘d wind up on a ventilator. That was the scary of it.

NBC News: What was your treatment strategy?

Saag: We don’t have a proven treatment and I think that’s vital to understand. It points out how ruined we have actually become on the planet of medication. We have many treatments for a lot of disorders that we simply assume that when something turns up, we can manage this.

However the reason we can handle it for other illness is that we’ve had time to do randomized trials that we have not had time to do with COVID. So, in my case, after the second night of horror I’ll call it, I was extremely concerned that I was heading the wrong instructions. Which has to do with the time a research study came out that suggested using hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin.

So I called 10 associate specialists and stated, ‘What do you believe?’ They said, ‘Well, proceed and attempt it.’ I did. I can’t really inform you it assisted or hurt. In retrospect, now that I have actually been able to look into it a bit more, I’m a bit embarrassed of myself, because I could have put myself into damage’s way in terms of unexpected death. That can take place when you utilize those two particular drugs together, because they can cause a fatal arrhythmia, and I was not being kept an eye on properly.

The take-home point is I completely get why someone who’s that ill would want something, due to the fact that doing nothing is very, extremely challenging.

On the other hand, we actually do require randomized controlled trials to tell us the fact of what the drug routine does or does refrain from doing, and what its safety profile is. Till we have that, we’re actually attempting to fly an aircraft in fog without instruments.

NBC News: You’ve not only been infected yourself, you’re treating patients at a COVID clinic. What more are you finding out about the symptoms and how this disease is acting in individuals?

Saag: It’s unique. The infection is not like the influenza that hits you simultaneously. These symptoms sort of gradually approach on folks, and after that it crescendos.

For some individuals, they might not have symptoms at all or they could clear it in 5 days. For the majority of people, by 5 to 10 days, that’s when symptoms heighten, and are normally even worse at night: fever, muscle pains, tiredness, headache.

Loss of sense of odor is kind of a distinct symptom. It’s not present in everyone. If I have a patient call me and say, ‘I don’t feel excellent and I’ve lost my sense of smell’– up until proven otherwise, they have COVID, there’s no concern about it.

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NBC News: It’s now been shown the infection can have a neurologic impact. Did you have those type of symptoms?

Saag: There’s no concern that it clouds cognition. During the night, I was not believing clearly. I can’t say I was delirious, however I had to focus hard when talking. And I had to focus hard when thinking about, for example, responding to an email, which I learned not to do when I didn’t feel well.

NBC News: What mechanism do you believe causes those cognitive deficits?

Saag: I’m pretty confident it’s swelling. It’s our body immune system that’s aggressively attacking the infection, and the by-product of that battle is causing collateral damage. It’s friendly fire. It’s our immune system going haywire attempting to throw whatever at this virus. In the course of doing that, it’s causing damage unintentionally to other tissues.

To get a bit more technical, when the body immune system reacts to a pathogen, say this infection, [the immune system] acknowledges that it’s under attack. And it battles by hiring other cells of the immune system and it does that by releasing chemicals called cytokines.

These cytokines can be launched in prodigious quantities. And when they are released, that’s what triggers the signs of the infection. And the cytokines are launched into the body. And those are the things that in my opinion, are causing the other signs such as cognitive dysfunction, neurologic sequela, heart difficulty, kidney failure, perhaps even the diarrhea that we see.

And it’s not up until those cytokines return under control, that the body begins to recover.

NBC News: What do we know about resistance and for how long might that last?

Saag: Well, I am linked to a great deal of individuals in research laboratories, so I sent blood off to a number of locations. I’ve been informed that I have high levels of antibody, and those antibodies seem to be neutralizing antibodies, which implies that they can assault the infection, and secure cells and tissue culture from ending up being contaminated.

However the concern still remains: how does that equate into real protection should I be re-exposed to the virus?

Based upon other infections that we come across, like measles or mumps, the proof is quite clear that type of immunity is protective. In other infections, such as hepatitis C, individuals can be reinfected. The exact same thing holds true for viruses like dengue, which is a tropical virus.

So it’s not 100 percent clear with coronavirus, but my individual bet is that the resistance will be protective.

If that’s true, then that’s fantastic news since the people who’ve had the infection are secured, which’s going to help us get out of this in the long run. However more notably, it suggests that a vaccine can work.

A vaccine will be a game changer. That will allow us to think of returning to “regular life” if it’s offered– widely available– and effective.

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