Symptoms of coronavirus infection (COVID-19) are increasingly recognized among a subset of people following an infectious disease, but characteristics associated with this persistence are not well understood. .
Previous reports have shown that some patients receiving COVID-19 report harmful symptoms, including headache, fatigue, cough and weakness. Some people report neurological and psychiatric side effects, such as memory problems, brain fog, and depression.
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School aimed to identify individual traits that predicted symptom survival over at least two months.
The results of the study, which appeared on the pre-print server medRxiv *, showed that COVID-19 survivors experience symptoms up to 10 months after infection.
Background to the study
Postviral outbreaks have been characterized for more than a century. COVID-19 does not seem to be an exception, as many survivors report persistent symptoms even after they have recovered.
Some people report symptoms lasting more than two months, with some reporting symptoms at least six months later.
In a study conducted, 87 percent of people with COVID-19 had at least one persistent symptom. In contrast, at six months after hospitalization, another study found that 63 percent of patients had weakness or fatigue, and 26 percent had sleep disturbances.
The researchers of the current study aimed to determine the level of persistent symptoms in people who have undergone COVID-19. They also want to know how long these symptoms last.
The study
To reach the conclusions of the study, the researchers used data from a multivariate study in the United States that includes questions about COVID-19.
“We aimed to identify individual features that were expected to persist for at least two months at the time of survey completion,” the team explained.
The researchers used ten waves of online survey between June 13, 2020, and January 10, 2021, across 50 states and the District of Columbia. The waves totaled about 124,962 people.
Of these, 6,211 people reported COVID-19 symptomatic illness confirmed by a positive test or clinical diagnosis. Approximately 4,946 people have recovered within less than two months, and 7.9 percent experienced persistent symptoms for more than two months.
The team also found that, of the group as a whole, 3.4 percent had symptoms for four months or more, and 2.2 percent had persistent symptoms for more than six months. The team showed that older age was associated with an increased risk for symptom survival based on the data analyzes.
When a patient has had a headache, it is associated with an increased likelihood of persistence.
The findings of the study provide additional evidence that some people who survive COVID-19 experience persistent and persistent symptoms.
“In particular, strong signals are not strongly associated with any sociodemographic group; however, individual indicators and greater overall clarity indicate people are at greater risk for survival, ”the team explained.
They added that the results of the study could help risk stratification to identify those who are more likely to experience persistent symptoms. These patients can be monitored by clinicians and health professionals for follow-up.
COVID-19 pandemic tax
The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. Globally, more than 119 million diseases are reported, and more than 2.63 million people have been lost.
The United States reports the highest number of reported diseases, amounting to 29.4 million, with a death toll of more than 534,000.
The other countries with a skyrocketing number of cases include Brazil, with 11.48 million cases; India with 11.35 million; Russia with 4.34 million; the United Kingdom with 4.27 million; and France with 4.1 million.
* Important message
medRxiv publish preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be seen as final, guiding health-related clinical practice / behavior, or be treated as information established.
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