A study focusing on health workers in the past year found that up to 1 in 10 people who experience a mild case of coronavirus still have a persistent symptom that negatively affects their lives eight months after their illness resolves. has. The most common complaints among the study participants were a persistent loss of smell, taste, fatigue and breathing problems.
The study, conducted by researchers in Sweden and published in the journal JAMA, began collecting blood samples from 2,149 employees at Danderyd Hospital in the spring of 2020. About 19% of this group had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. told EurekAlert.org. The researchers continued to collect blood samples every four months and asked participants to respond to questions about persistent symptoms and the impact on quality of life.
The analysis found that 26% of those who had COVID-19 before, compared to 9% in the control group, had at least one moderate to severe symptom that lasted longer than two months.
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In January 2021, the researchers analyzed responses from 323 health workers who reported long-term symptoms, comparing them to 1,072 health workers who did not have COVID-19 during the study period.
1 IN 3 CORONAVIRUS SURVIVORS FACE PSYCHIATIC DIAGNOSES WITHIN 6 MONTHS: STUDY
The analysis found that 26% of those who had COVID-19 previously compared to 9% in the control group had at least one moderate to severe symptom lasting more than two months, and that 11% compared to 2% in the control group a at least one symptom that had a negative impact on work, social or domestic life that lasted at least eight months.
“We investigated the presence of long-term symptoms after mild COVID-19 in a relatively young and healthy group of working individuals, and we found that the predominant long-term symptoms were loss of smell and taste,” said Charlotte Thalin, Ph.D. ., lead researcher for the COMMUNITY study at Danderyd Hospital and Karolinska Institutet, said in the news release. “However, we do not see an increased incidence of cognitive symptoms such as brain fatigue, memory and concentration problems or physical disorders such as muscle and joint pain, palpitations or long-term fever.”
Little is known about long-term COVID, or so-called “long-term keepers”, but as the number of COVID-19 survivors reports, long-term symptoms continue to be given increasing attention. Several studies, including one funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), are aimed at deciphering the long-term mechanisms behind COVID.
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Another recent development published by a team from the University of Oxford suggested that one in three survivors out of 236,000 individuals involved in the study was diagnosed with a neurological or psychiatric illness. Anxiety and mood disorders have been found to be the most common diagnoses, with those enduring a severe attack of COVID-19 considered the greatest risk.