Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Dublin Live
Dublin Live
National
Sophie Collins & Amy Donohoe

62 symptoms linked to Long Covid including some scary side effects

A new study has revealed two new Long Covid symptoms reported by patients.

Low sex drive and hair loss have been added to the list of side effects of Long Covid, according to a new study in the UK.

Research conducted at the University of Birmingham has found that Long Covid sufferers have listed more than 60 symptoms, including erectile dysfunction, amnesia, and bowel incontinence.

Read more: 'Assume you have Covid' if you wake up with this symptom

The findings were recently published in the journal Nature Medicine, and showed that patients with a legitimate record of infection with Covid-19 reported 62 symptoms much more frequently 12 weeks after testing positive than those who hadn’t contracted the virus.

The team involved epidemiologists, clinicians, data scientists, statisticians, and patients to decode electronic health records to accurately capture persistent symptoms experienced after infection.

The data was taken between January 2020 and April 2021 and involved more than 480,000 people with prior infection, and 1.9 million people with no record of ever having coronavirus after matching for other clinical diagnoses.

The team of researchers were able to identify three categories of distinct symptoms - among patients that were non-hospitalised - reported by people with persistent health problems after infection.

While the most common symptoms include anosmia - loss of sense of smell, shortness of breath, chest pain and fever, others detailed amnesia, bowel incontinence, erectile dysfunction, hallucinations, limb swelling and apraxia - the inability to perform familiar movements or commands.

The study’s senior author, Dr Shamil Haroon, Associate Clinical Professor in Public Health at the University of Birmingham, said: “This research validates what patients have been telling clinicians and policy makers throughout the pandemic, that the symptoms of Long Covid are extremely broad and cannot be fully accounted for by other factors such as lifestyle risk factors or chronic health conditions.”

Read more: Uptake for Covid-19 vaccine for children highest in Dublin

“The symptoms we identified should help clinicians and clinical guideline developers to improve the assessment of patients with long-term effects from Covid-19, and to subsequently consider how this symptom burden can be best managed.”

Patient partner and study co-author Jennifer Camaradou added: “This study is instrumental in creating and adding further value to understanding the complexity and pathology of Long Covid. It highlights the degree and diversity of expression of symptoms between different clusters.

READ NEXT:

Sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter to get all the latest Dublin news straight to your inbox

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.