The killer in Covid-19 is our own immune system

A Covid-19 patient on a ventilator in the intensive care unit at Vila Penteado General Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The cytokine storm set off by the disease results in the lungs shutting down, often causing death through respiratory failure. — Bloomberg

Paradoxically, Covid-19 mostly kills its victims through an overreaction of the immune system, whose function is precisely to fight off infections in our body.

In a new review article – explicitly targeted to non-specialists as well – in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, a team of experts from Zunyi Medical University in China review the epidemiology, disease pathway, symptoms, diagnosis and current treatment of severe Covid-19.