Severe COVID-19 Cases: Is Respiratory Distress Partially Explained by Central Nervous System Involvement?

The main characteristics and challenging symptoms of COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, are related to re-spiratory distress. Although most patients have mild symptoms such as fever, headache, cough, myalgia and anosmia, some develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, leading to death in many cases. Human coronavirus (CoVs) were responsible for two previ-ous worldwide outbreaks: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV). Several reports of these outbreaks demonstrated that these diseases affected the central nervous system (CNS).[1] Thus, for the current COVID-19 pandemic, a crucial question arises: does CNS affection at least partially explain the respiratory distress commonly found in these patients?