JAKARTA - In mid-2020, researchers uncovered one of the biggest mysteries of the coronavirus: why COVID-19 has a mild impact on someone, but can also be very deadly for others. One answer is called a cytokine storm. Raditya Oloan Panggabean, the husband of actress Joanna Alexandra, experienced it before he died.
Cytokines are high levels of immune system proteins. Researchers found cytokines in the blood of the COVID-19 patients with the most serious symptoms. More deaths from COVID-19 may have occurred because of a chaotic immune reaction rather than from infection with the virus itself.
When the immune response gets out of control, they will begin to attack the body's own cells and tissues rather than fighting off the virus which is its true enemy. Cytokine storms are not a new health problem. It is known to occur in autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis in adolescents.
Cytokine storms also occur in some cancer treatments. Or like Raditya Oloan, where a cytokine storm is triggered by an infection. A study of patients who died of the H1N1 influenza virus found 81 percent characteristic of cytokine storms. Dozens of other studies were conducted to find ways to save patients from a cytokine storm.
Mukesh Kumar, a virologist, an immunologist at Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States studies how the body responds to infection. Mukesh, in a high-security laboratory, has been experimenting.
It infected cells and animals with SARS-CoV-2 to learn what was going on. One thing he has observed is that viruses multiply very quickly after infecting cells.
"There is a lot of pressure on the cells in a short period of time ... When each cell senses that something is foreign, that something bad is happening, the immediate response of the cell is to kill itself. This is a protection mechanism so that it doesn't spread to other cells”, Mukesh Kumar, quoted by WebMD, Friday, May 7.
Trigger cell death
Certain types of cytokines trigger cell death. A lot of tissue can die when a person experiences too much cell death. In COVID-19, the tissue is mostly in the lungs. When the tissue is damaged, the walls of the tiny air sacs of the lungs leak and fill with fluid.
This condition causes pneumonia and triggers a lack of oxygen in the blood. Lung damage to a severe degree will cause respiratory distress syndrome. From there, other organs will begin to fail.
"Basically, most of your cells will die from the cytokine storm. It eats away at the lungs. They couldn't recover… It seems to have contributed to the deaths in many cases”, Mukesh Kumar.
In his research, Kumar also discovered how the SARS-CoV-2 virus triggered more cytokine production up to fifty times. This production rate is much higher than how the body reacts to infection with the Zika or West Nile virus.
Records of Raditya Oloan's medical condition
Raditya Oloan Panggabean breathed his last on Thursday, May 6. He had fought against COVID-19, even from inside the ICU room at the Persahabatan Hospital.
His wife, Joanna Alexandra, repeatedly reported Raditya's condition through social media uploads. Joanna also asked her followers for prayers on social media.
On April 14, Raditya was confirmed positive for COVID-19. Joanna had uploaded her photo with Raditya while undergoing treatment at the Wisma Atlet Emergency Hospital.
"Now my husband is in IMCU (intermediate care unit) and he's on high flow oxygen ... Hopefully, saturation and other numbers will improve quickly so he can return to my room again", wrote Joanna.
Three days later, Raditya was referred to the Persahabatan Hospital. Meanwhile, Joanna and several other family members remain at the Wisma Atlet Emergency Hospital.
At that time, Joanna stated that Radit had to be treated in ICU. However, Radit also reported through social media uploads that he was not referring to COVID-19, but the effect of COVID-19 which causes inflammation.
"Btw this morning I had a swab and the results were negative. But the COVID-19 attacked until my body became inflame", wrote Raditya.
The news continued, Joanna wrote about Raditya's condition, who was experiencing post-COVID-19 with comorbid asthma. Comorbidity is a condition when a person experiences two or more diseases that occur simultaneously.
This term has recently appeared in cases of COVID-19. Comorbidity is also often referred to as increasing the risk of death of a COVID-19 patient.
Raditya's news got worse. Joanna described the cytokine storm that Raditya was experiencing. "He is going through a cytokine storm which causes hyper-inflammation in his whole body ... Plus there is a fairly strong bacterial infection", wrote Joanna.
*Read other information about COVID-19 or read other interesting writings from Yudhistira Mahabharata.
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