US CDC had earlier pointed out that people who contract mild COVID recover from it in 1 to 2 weeks, while for severe COVID patients, symptoms may continue for 6 weeks or more. However, a Lancet Respiratory Medicine's recent study showed at least half of the people hospitalized due to COVID suffer from one or more symptoms even two years after the infection.
How was the study conducted?
The study that was led by doctors at the China–Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing followed 1,192 people hospitalized with Covid at Wuhan’s Jin Yin-tan hospital in early 2020, checking in with them six months.
The participants’ median age was 57, and more than half were men.
What did the study reveal?
The study shows long Covid symptoms recover with time. After six months, 68% of study participants reported at least one symptom. But by two years, the reports had fallen to 55%.
Full recovery has remained elusive for people who suffered through the virus’s first wave. This means patients had poorer health than the general population and required more attention from health-care services, Lancet Respiratory Medicine study said.
What are the symptoms?
Some of the common signs of the long COVID are Fever, Fatigue, Breathlessness, Cough, Chest pain, Brain fog, Sleep problems, Muscle pain, Pounding heartbeat, Loss of smell or taste, Depression or anxiety.
WHO has earlier notified that the disease can cause even severe disorders like vasculitis, heart and nerve-related ailments.
