More than three-quarters of people hospitalized with COVID-19 were still suffering from at least one symptom after six months, according to a new study.
The study, published Saturday in the medical journal Lancet, involved hundreds of patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus was first discovered.
He found that muscle weakness or muscle weakness were the most common symptoms, while people reported sleeping problems.
Scientists said the study – among a few that detect long-term symptoms of COVID-19 – indicates that the effects of lingering coronavirus need further investigation.
“With COVID-19 being such a new disease, we are only just beginning to understand some of its long-term effects on patient health,” said lead author Bin Cao, of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine.
The professor said the research identified the need for ongoing care for patients after they are discharged from the hospital, especially those with serious illnesses.
The new study included 1,733 COVID-19 patients discharged from Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan between January and May last year.
Patients, with an average age of 57, were visited between June and September and answered questions about their symptoms and health-related quality of life.
Researchers also performed physical and laboratory tests.
The study found that 76 percent of patients who participated in the review (1,265 of 1,655) reported having symptoms.
Muscle or muscle weakness was reported in 63%, and sleep problems in 26 percent.
The study also looked at 94 patients whose blood antibody levels were recorded at the height of the infection as part of another trial.
When these patients were retested after six months, their levels of neutral antibodies were 52.5 percent lower.
The authors said this raises concerns about the potential for redefining COVID-19, although they said larger samples would be needed to clarify how immunity to the virus changes over time.
The World Health Organization has said the virus poses a risk to some people of chronic side effects – even among young people, who were healthy or not in hospital. To date, more than 89 million coronavirus cases have been diagnosed, including approximately 1.9 million associated deaths and 49.5 million recovered.
“Patients need to be seen for six months or more due to complications in getting the virus. That means we will have even less capacity, fewer healthcare workers available to treat these people, ”Oksana Pyzik, a global health consultant and lecturer at UCL, told Al Jazeera .
“That will have another impact on taking care of all sorts of ailments,” such as cancer, Pyzik said.
In an opinion article, also published in the Lancet, Monica Cortinovis, Norberto Perico, and Giuseppe Remuzzi, of Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS in Italy, said there was uncertainty about the long-term health consequences of the disease. panoramic.
“Unfortunately, there are few reports on the clinical picture after COVID-19,” they said, adding that the most recent study is, therefore, “relevant and timely”.
They said a long-term multidisciplinary study in the United States and the United Kingdom would help improve understanding and help develop therapies to “reduce the long-term effects of COVID-19 on many organs and bones ”.