50% of mild to moderate COVID patients have symptoms after 6 months – study

According to a new study published by Israeli researchers, almost half of people who have mild or moderate cases of COVID-19 still experience symptoms six months later. Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, evaluated 103 people older than 18 who had coronavirus during a six-month period between April 2020 and October 2020. The people had mild to moderate symptoms, meaning that although they were not asymptomatic, they were not admitted to the hospital with a more serious case. Participants were interviewed up to four times during the course of the study. “It is very scary that young people who were healthy and felt well before they had the coronavirus still have symptoms after six months,” said Dr. Sarah Israel of Hadassah said. -University Medical Center, who helped write the report. At six months, 46% of patients had at least one unresolved symptom, mostly fatigue (22%), odor and taste changes (15%), or breathing problems (8%). The study showed that 44% of people experience headaches, 41% fever, 39% muscle aches and 38% dry cough as their first COVID symptom, usually around the second day of the illness. But many of the symptoms resolved themselves relatively quickly. In contrast, the change in smell and taste, which usually appeared around the fourth day after the onset of the disease, was the most prolonged.

A total of 14 symptoms were included in the final analysis, of which 12 were listed as symptoms of COVID-19 by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) from December 2020. These include taste change, odor change, fever, dryness in cough, productive cough, muscle aches, headaches, runny nose, sore throat, diarrhea, breathing problems, vomiting and nausea. In addition, more than half of the participants (53%) complained of a non-CDC symptom: loss of appetite. Finally, fatigue, now listed as a CDC symptom, did not appear explicitly in the original questionnaire, but was reported by 18% of patients themselves under “any other symptoms.” Dr. Israel said other symptoms mentioned by some of the patients included memory loss, hair loss and depression: “many symptoms for which it is difficult to understand why patients experienced this post-COVID.” The report explained that ‘long COVID’ has emerged as a phenomenon where patients have long-term unresolved symptoms. These may be long-term symptoms of COVID-19, or a post-COVID syndrome for which autonomic nervous system dysfunction is suggested, although further research is needed to determine the causes. As noted, most patients were healthy in terms of underlying medical conditions before contracting the virus. Two of them had high blood pressure, six had respiratory disease, two had heart disease and 16 were clinically obese. The report had several limitations, the report explained, including that the data collection method used – to call patients at different intervals – could cause recall bias. In addition, patients have been recruited via social networks and word-of-mouth, so it is a largely younger group with higher incomes and levels of education. Israel hoped the information in the report would enable physicians to better understand COVID-19’s longer understanding. term health complications. She also hopes it will encourage young people to be vaccinated. “I think people now know that it is not an easy virus,” she said. ‘Even if you rarely get sick, the virus can affect you months later. The risk for the side effects of the vaccine is small compared to the symptoms of the virus. ”Israel added that additional work needs to be done to evaluate whether patients without symptoms experience similar symptoms after recovery. She also said the team hopes to continue surveying those involved in the current study to determine when their existing symptoms disappear.