2023-08-14 20:00:00
Summer reading special: National Geographic Magazine for only €5/month + GIFT to choose
Enjoy our special editions at a single price for being a subscriber.
Fever, fatigue, cough, or headache and throat pain. Difficulty breathing, gastrointestinal complaints, muscle and body pain, or loss of taste and smell. Few are, at this point, those who have not been able to identify some of the most frequent symptoms of the infection caused by the virus that paralyzed the world at the beginning of 2020.
However, much less known are the consequences produced in the medium and long term by the virus infection. SARS-CoV-2which, being able to last for months, are grouped under terms known as “persistent Covid”, “chronic Covid-19” or “post-Covid 19 syndrome”.
The Covid is persistent It is a new condition that affects some people who have been infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and which, as the facts seem to show, is not related to the process suffered by the patient in the acute phase of the disease. In fact, it is a condition about which to this day we still have very little information, and about which, the lack of rigorous studies in this regard, has installed a generalized uncertainty about many of the aspects that surround this disease. .
Everything you need to know about Eris, the new strain of COVID-19
In this article we transfer the information collected by the communication agency Science Media Center Spain, -SMC-, from where to try to shed light on this new condition, they have compiled all the useful information to date on the state of persistent Covid.
What are the symptoms of persistent Covid?
The reason why it is so hard to come up with a precise definition of persistent Covid goes through the huge number of symptoms associated with the infection caused by the coronavirus, often analyzed through observational studies, without a control group or with limitations or errors in their design.
This has caused today to contemplate more than 200 symptoms related to the disease, which makes it more difficult for the diagnosis and study of persistent Covid.
What you should know about the Spanish vaccine against COVID-19
Even so, some of the most common symptoms identified and limited by the scientific literature include ploss of sense of taste or smell, chronic fatigue, recurring cough, and brain fog.
How many people does persistent Covid affect?
The large number of symptoms related to persistent Covid, the different definitions and the publication of biased studies -for example, through surveys online that favor selection bias—makes it difficult to know the prevalence of this syndrome.
As a result, the answer to this question varies greatly depending on the study, and it is common to find percentages that, according to different criteria, range from 10% to 80% of previously infected patients.
What does persistent Covid produce?
The short answer is that the causes are still unknown. However, several hypotheses, not necessarily mutually exclusive, have been put forward to explain persistent Covid.
Among some of the more plausible is the possibility that persistent Covid may be caused by a destabilization of the immune system after acute infection, the ability of the virus to survive in some tissues, or the formation of small blood clots during the acute phase of the disease, which in the long term can have consequences at various levels, from the circulation, through the brain to the joints.
Is there a cure for persistent Covid?
The available scientific literature shows that the majority of patients improve and even fully recovers after one year of suffering from acute infection. The answer once again depends on the definitions of persistent Covid and recovery, however, various studies estimate that the vast majority of patients recover between six months and one year.
Are there treatments or ways to prevent persistent Covid?
At the moment the therapeutic options are scarce. One of the few treatments that has shown some efficacy is metforminwhich is capable of reducing the incidence of persistent Covid by 41%, with an absolute reduction of 4.1%, according to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
These have been the 3 deadliest pandemics in history
In addition, vaccination against Covid-19 has shown reduce the chances of suffering sequelaewhich also are less common after the first infection.
Does the risk of persistent Covid increase with each new infection?
Not everyone is at the same risk for persistent Covid, so the risk does not necessarily increase with each infection. Despite the fact that the vast majority of the population has been infected, and that the number of infections and reinfections is greater now than at the beginning of the pandemic, persistent Covid cases have not only not increased proportionally to the number of infections, but rather some indicators show that they have decreased.
Why are there so many uncertainties regarding persistent CoviD at this point?
Persistent Covid is reminiscent of one of the blind spots in modern medicine, which shows difficulties in understanding and helping patients with chronic problems of unknown or poorly understood origin.
In addition, the lack of biomarkers that facilitate the diagnosis of patients makes it very difficult for companies to take an interest in persistent Covid, the prevalence of which is not even exactly known, considering it a risky investment.
#persistent #Covid