Why is COVID-19 a relatively mild infection for some people—and fatal for others? That’s a mystery facing patients and their doctors these days.

In some cases, it appears that an immune response that’s gone haywire creates a “cytokine storm.” That’s when the body starts to attack its own cells and tissues, instead of just fighting off the virus.

In COVID-19, a cytokine storm can lead to cell death in the lungs. This can lead to pneumonia and starving the blood of oxygen. Sometimes, this results in extensive organ damage, which can be fatal.

Dr. Richard Horowitz, well known Lyme and tick-borne disease expert, has experience dealing with cytokine storms, because they can occur in Lyme patients as well.

He and patient advocate David Roth recently gave a presentation about how Dr. Horowitz’s use of glutathione and other innovative treatments helped Roth recover from a serious case of COVID-19 last month.

Now, Dr. Horowitz and two co-authors have compiled that information—and more—into an article in the open access online journal Respiratory Medicine Case Reports. The title is Efficacy of glutathione therapy in relieving dyspnea associated with COVID-19 pneumonia: A report of 2 cases. [Note: “Dyspnea” is the medical term for shortness of breath.]

In a Facebook post linking to the article, Dr. Horowitz stated, “I also have contacted my state and federal representatives about the article and explained the urgent need to do a randomized, controlled study to evaluate the efficacy of the treatment protocols described in the paper.”

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s Vice-president and Director of Communications. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.