As the country battles the second wave of  COVID-19 pandemic, young people are now reporting severe lung infections and
“unpredictable” symptoms. The latest threat to join the long list of
COVID-19 symptoms are ‘happy hypoxia’ which means very low levels of oxygen in
the blood.

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It is a very important stage in the COVID-19 illness. Hypoxia is a
warning signal for imminent failure of vital body organs like the kidneys,
brain, heart and is usually accompanied by prominent breathlessness.

“Happy hypoxia patients can have extremely low oxygen levels,
as low as 40% (the normal being above 94%), but feel fine despite
that,” India Today quoted doctor Vivek Anand Padegal as saying. It can also lead to serious illness requiring hospitalisation
and ICU care. Therefore, it is very crucial to get tested with minimal symptoms
for COVID-19
.

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If diagnosed, one must constantly monitor oxygen levels. It
may affect the nervous system as well. The proper medical term for it is
“silent hypoxia” because it happens when people are unaware they are
being deprived of oxygen, Padegal said. 

Doctor Rajkamal Choudhry, associate
professor at the Department of Medicine of the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical
College, Bhagalpur in Bihar, said that in some COVID-19 patients experiencing
happy hypoxia, oxygen levels have dropped to 20-30%. He estimated that
30% of India’s COVID-19 patients who require hospitalisation have happy hypoxia,
which could prove fatal.

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Happy hypoxia also causes ‘change in the colour of lips from
natural tone to blue, skin discolouration to red or purple tone or profuse sweating
even when not doing heavy physical work could be a symptom of happy hypoxia’,
states an India Today report.