**4.4 Effects of COVID-19 on neurological systems**

Several case reports of SARS-CoV-2 from hospitals, clinical settings, and study groups indicate different manifestations of neurological symptoms and effects [43, 60]. These studies report these common neurological manifestations to occur in the brain, olfactory areas, and central nervous system. A report from the treatment of a COVID-19 patient carried out by [61] described encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) detected through CT scans as a clinical manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 infection. One study in China. Another study in the UK reported that patients developed unexplained encephalopathic features (detected through MRI) and showed a cognitive decline [62]. Additionally, an autopsy of human brain samples from neurologically diseased patients showed the presence of the virus in the cortical neurons of the brain [55, 63]. This presence is attributed to inter-neuronal propagation and axonal transport of the virus into the CNS. These reports constitute evidence that SARS-CoV-2 has neuro-invasive potential. It also stresses the need for further research to ascertain the level of damage it can cause in neurological systems as the exact mechanism of invasion is still unclear.
