2023-05-26 06:03:49
A new study identified 12 main symptoms of long-term Covid, although 200 chronic symptoms were reported that haunt people with Corona even after recovery from the coronavirus.
According to the newspaper “Washington PostThe new study, published in the journal JAMA, Thursday, was based on the participation of 9,764 people in an initiative called RECOVER.
The study used a scoring system based on the fact that these reported symptoms are a true indication of long-term Covid, given that similar symptoms were detected in people who had Covid-19 and those who never had it.
The most common symptoms of people who had previously contracted the emerging coronavirus scored higher than those that were uncommon in those who had not previously had the disease during the epidemic.
Loss of smell or taste topped the list of 12 symptoms identified by the study (8 points), while feeling unwell after exertion was the second of those symptoms (7 points), and chronic cough came third (4 points).
It also detected symptoms such as brain fog (3 points), thirst (3 points), heart palpitations (2 points), chest pain (2 points), fatigue (1 point), dizziness (1 point), gastrointestinal symptoms (1 point), and problems with desire and ability. Nationality (dot).
Others also reported abnormal movements, including tremors, slow movements, stiffness, or sudden, unintentional, uncontrollable jerky movements by as much as 1 point as well.
These new findings, which show symptoms of long-term Covid, come after a nearly four-year study worth $1.15 billion funded by the US National Institutes of Health.
Leora Horowitz, a physician at New York University of Langone Health who participated in the study, said that the research is expected to help standardize the definition of long-term covid, and to have a significant impact on how the condition is diagnosed and studied.
“If you look for simple questions like ‘how many people have been infected with the virus for so long’, the answers are everywhere because people define it differently,” she added.
Based on 12 specific symptoms, the infection rate among the different groups in the study ranged from 10 to 23 percent, depending on when they were infected and whether they entered the study after they had already been diagnosed with coronavirus.
However, the researchers cautioned that the findings are preliminary and that it is too early to use the list of symptoms to diagnose illness or determine eligibility for disability benefits.
Horowitz said she expects the definition of long-term Covid to continue to evolve and be refined by researchers, but called this study a “huge first step” toward creating a standardized definition.
She pointed out that the next step is for the researchers to validate the results of the study and compare them with laboratory tests.
Currently, the World Health Organization defines long-term COVID-19 as the appearance of any new symptoms three months after the initial infection with the virus.
Horowitz said that while the definition is comprehensive and flexible, it does not clearly define long-term Covid disease for researchers.
And the World Health Organization announced, earlier this month, that Covid-19 is under sufficient control for the associated high alert status to be lifted, more than three years after the spread of this epidemic, which caused millions of deaths.
“It is with much hope that I declare that Covid-19 no longer constitutes a global health emergency,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Gebreisos, estimating that the pandemic had killed “at least 20 million people,” a toll three times higher than estimates. official.
He also referred to the repercussions of long-term Covid, which leads to a wide range of symptoms that impede in one way or another the lives of the infected.
He added that one infection out of every 10 is considered to be from long Covid, which means that hundreds of millions of people may be in need of long-term care, the size or economic and psychological costs of which have not been well taken into account.
#huge #American #study #identifies #symptoms #longterm #Covid