A rapid overreaction of the body's immune system, called a cytokine storm, is one of the most alarming features of COVID-19.

It may help explain why there are severe reactions in a patient's body to the novel coronavirus that leads to death in many fatal cases where COVID-19 patients only experience mild symptoms, according to experts.

A Cytokine Storm

Cytokines are proteins that are being released by the body's immune system naturally, says an article. It can trigger inflammation when the body believes that it is under attack by an infection.

Sometimes, in the case of the novel coronavirus entering the lungs, the immune system of a body goes into overdrive with uncontrollable cytokine levels being released. This reaction could likely kill a COVID-19 patient.

A Storm of Hyper-Inflammation

The lung's storm of hyper-inflammation is also a similar complication brought by previously known coronavirus strains such as SARS in 2003 and MERS in 2012. The two viruses had taken the lives of many people globally. However, it was controlled to prevent it from being labeled as a pandemic.

Additionally, the storm of hyper-inflammation in the lungs had contributed to the fatality of 2005's H5N1 bird flu. The phenomenon may have been present among earlier pandemics such as the 1918 Spanish Influenza, say experts. The 1918 Spanish Influenza occurred after World War I. It had taken the lives of more or less 50 million people.

During a 2006 pre-clinical trial in London, six healthy young men had suffered from multiple organ failure for an uncontrollable immune response to a drug. The men's immune system reacted 90 minutes after the drug was administered. The six men were dubbed as the 'Elephant Men' due to the disfiguration and swelling they had endured from the reaction. However, the men survived the drug trial.

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Day 7

There is a significant number of hospitalization for pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus, says the World Health Organization (WHO).

In many COVID-19 cases, patients' condition worsens during their seventh to 10th day of experiencing symptoms to the illness.

According to a University College Hospital' inflammation specialist named Jessica Manson, the collection of evidence reveals that a subgroup of COVID-19 patients with severe cases of the illness has a cytokine storm syndrome. She suggests close monitoring of the said syndrome among patients in the intensive care unit.

Can this be prevented?

The current problem for scientists and doctors is calming the cytokine storm while still maintain the patient's immune defenses functioning sufficiently.

As of the moment, Paris hospitals are trying out various medicines to determine if it affects reducing excessive inflammatory reactions in the body of patients.

According to Stanley Perlman, an immunologist professor at the University of Iowa, there is still no discovery of effective treatment of the phenomenon.