Long-term Covid refers to the cluster of long-term symptoms that some people experience after contracting Covid-19. It is defined as the presence of symptoms beyond four weeks following the onset of acute Covid-19 illness. For some people, symptoms persist for more than 12 weeks.
What is the risk of developing a long Covid following an infection?
Covid-19 is a disease whose signs disappear in most cases in two to three weeks. However, the persistence of symptoms several weeks or months after the first manifestations has been described in many patients.
According to a Dutch study, around one in eight patients infected with Covid-19 would develop long-term symptoms. The number of people over the age of 18 concerned in the French population would be 2.06 million. Although their frequency is lower than in adults, prolonged symptoms of Covid have also been described in children and adolescents (from 2 to 5%).
What symptoms?
Among the persistent symptoms that have been most often described are shortness of breath (dyspnea), feeling tired (asthenia), headache, joint and muscle pain, chest pain, cognitive problems, digestive disorders , or the loss of smell and taste (anosmia/dysgeusia).
Neuropsychological symptoms may also occur within six months of infection. Anxiety and mood disorders are the most common. Prolonged symptoms of Covid-19 can occur even in people who have had mild forms of the disease and are therefore not related to the severity of the initial acute illness.
The risk of long Covid, a function of sex?
If men are statistically more likely to develop a severe form of Covid-19, women would be more exposed to long Covid. They also appear to be more symptomatic than men and more likely to report shortness of breath, weakness, chest pain or trouble sleeping.