Since its diagnosis, “long-term COVID,” or “long-term viral infection with the COVID-19 virus,” has proven to be one of the biggest challenges of the pandemic, as people continue to experience symptoms or develop new symptoms after recovering from acute COVID-19 infection.
And symptoms of prolonged COVID can be wide-ranging and may include fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, joint pain, headaches, brain fog, difficulty sleeping, and depression or anxiety.
But according to a recent extensive study of prolonged COVID patients lasting more than 12 months, 59% of patients continued to show organ damage a year after the onset of initial symptoms, including those who were not severely affected at the time of diagnosis of the virus, according to Sci. tech daily scientific.
The study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, focused on patients who reported severe shortness of breath, dyspraxia, and impairment of various life processes.
And 536 long-term COVID patients were included in the study.
Thirteen percent of them were hospitalized when they were first diagnosed with COVID-19, while 32% of the people in the study were healthcare workers.
The study’s senior author, Professor Amitava Banerjee, from University College London’s Institute of Health Informatics, said: “Symptoms were more common in females and in young men.
“The impact on quality of life and ability to work, particularly in healthcare workers, is a major concern for individuals, health systems and economies,” he said.