The coronavirus infection COVID-19, even when mild, can affect the brain, according to scientists from Tulane University (USA).

Even mild COVID-19 can provoke a large number of foci of inflammation and small hemorrhages, according to the university's press office.

The study was conducted on monkeys, which did not experience serious symptoms of COVID-19 during observations, so experts did not expect to see significant adverse effects on the body. However, SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was found to cause a large number of foci of inflammation and bleeding even in those primates that were not experiencing any external acute respiratory symptoms. Such results were observed in more than half of the two groups of test monkeys.

In some cases, the abnormalities found led to widespread death of nerve cells, which formed hypoxia in certain areas of the brain. According to scientists, this phenomenon explains the clouding of consciousness and other disorders occurring in the head during the acute stage of the disease.