More than A QUARTER of COVID-19 patients are experiencing symptoms such as fatigue and shortness of breath at least six months after recovering, study finds
- A new study looked at 431 participants in Zurich, Switzerland, who tested positive for COVID-19 and had since recovered
- A total of 26.4% still had symptoms six to eight months after first being being diagnosed with the virus
- Fatigue was the most common symptom with nearly 55% experiencing it followed shortness of breath and depression
More than a quarter of COVID-19 patients say they are experiencing symptoms several months later, a new study suggests.
Researchers looked at data on more than 400 people who tested positive for the virus and had since recovered.
They found that 26.4 percent still had symptoms six to eight months after first being being diagnosed with fatigue being the most common symptom.
The team, from the University of Zurich in Switzerland, says the results leave many questions unanswered about so-called ‘long-haul Covid’ including who is more at risk or why it develops in the first place.
A new study found that 26.4% of 431 COVID-19 patients still had symptoms six to eight months after first being being diagnosed with the virus
‘Long-haul Covid’ appears in patients that have recovered from the virus and continue exhibiting symptoms for weeks, or potentially months or years, after clearing the infection.
There are a wide-array of symptoms that can appear, including continued loss of taste and smell, long-term fatigue and long-term sensory issues.
The causes of the condition remain unknown and several studies are being conducted to examine long-term effects.
For the study, published in PLOS ONE, the team recruited 431 participants from Zurich’s contact tracing system.
All had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between February and August 2020 and filled out an online questionnaire six to eight months after being initially diagnosed.
Of the patients, 89 percent of them had traditional COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough and shortness of breath.
Overall, 26.4 percent said they still had signs of the disease even months after testing negative.
Fatigue was the most common symptom, with nearly 55 percent experiencing it six to eight months later.
About 24.3 percent said they had difficulty breathing while 26 percent of patients struggled with depression.
Females and people who were initially hospitalized when diagnosed were reported not having recovered compared to males and non-hospitalized individuals
An additional 31.7 percent of patients experienced and 16 percent said they experienced stress.
About 40 percent of the long-haul COVID patients said they had visited at least one general practitioner about a COVID-19 related illness.
‘This cohort study based on a representative, population-based sample of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals found that 26 percent did not fully recover within [six to eight] months after diagnosis and 40 percent had at least one further healthcare contact related to COVID-19,’ the authors wrote.
‘These findings underline the need for the timely planning of healthcare resources and services tailored to the needs of individuals suffering from post-COVID-19 syndrome