Long COVID eases over time, but disables millions

In the first rigorous assessment of the magnitude of prolonged COVID-19 on a global scale, researchers found that 6.2% of people who had COVID-19 in the first two years of the pandemic experienced at least one of three main clusters of symptoms. months later. Of those patients, 15% were still affected after one year.

Although the likelihood of chronic health problems from Covid is relatively low, the sheer number of cases — at least 670 million worldwide — leaves a substantial burden of disability, said Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Health at the University of Washington, where the study was conducted.

The effects of prolonged COVID are, on average, similar to those that occur after moderate to severe traumatic brain injury or complete deafness, said Theo Vos, a professor of health metrics sciences at the university, who led the study. .

The study, published Monday in JAMA, helps explain why as many as 4 million Americans have dropped out of the workforce in the wake of the pandemic and why prolonged COVID may cost $3.7 trillion in the United States alone. Joined. More than 94 million cases and 1 million deaths from Covid have been reported in the US, where the coronavirus infected nearly 42,000 people a day on average in September.

The research is based on data from 1.2 million COVID patients in 22 countries compiled from 54 studies and two medical record databases, including the US. More than 200 ailments have been linked to prolonged COVID, but the study in JAMA collected information on three common clusters of symptoms.

It found that three months after a coronavirus infection, 3.7% of patients had ongoing respiratory problems, 3.2% had persistent fatigue with body pain or mood swings, and 2.2% had cognitive problems, after adjusting for their health status. health before COVID.

‘small minority’

It’s not uncommon for Covid patients to experience persistent symptoms for a month, but most are gone completely or significantly diminished after three months, said Sarah Ryan, a doctor at Columbia Primary Care in New York.

Ryan, who has been caring for long-term COVID patients for more than two years, says based on his experience, “a bunch” has serious problems a year after his infection. “But the good news for the public is that they are a small minority,” said.

The risk of having long-lasting, long-lasting COVID symptoms increases with the severity of the acute infection, the JAMA study found. The average duration of prolonged COVID was nine months for people hospitalized for the coronavirus, compared to four months for people who battled the virus at home.

Among patients older than 20 years who had COVID three months earlier, persistent symptoms occurred in 10.6% of women and 5.4% of men.

Risk factor’s

It’s not yet known what causes prolonged COVID, although several risk factors are associated with the condition, said Michael Peluso, an infectious disease physician and scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, who has been studying the lingering effects of Covid on patients since March 2020.

“Women tend to be more affected than men”Peluso told a university forum on Thursday. The likelihood of developing prolonged covid is higher among middle-aged people, those with underlying medical conditions and obesity, and individuals with lower socioeconomic status and more limited access to health care, he said.

The latest analysis accounts for COVID cases through the end of 2021, before omicron variants drove an unprecedented rise in infections. Data from the UK suggest that the clan of hyperinfectious omicron variants is much less likely to cause prolonged COVID than the delta variant that preceded it.

Long-term symptoms are not the only health threat to COVID survivors. Diabetes and life-threatening conditions, including heart attacks, strokes, and kidney damage, are more common in COVID patients than in those who did not contract the pandemic disease.

“The pandemic will raise the baseline risk of disease and disability to a new level”said co-author Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development at the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Health Care System, whose own studies have led to important early findings on prolonged COVID.