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Paris (AFP)
More than three-quarters of the people hospitalized with Covid-19 still suffered from at least one symptom after six months, according to a study published Saturday and according to scientists the need for further investigation into the long-lasting coronavirus effects.
The research, published in the medical journal Lancet and involving hundreds of patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is among the few that have been able to detect the long-term symptoms of Covid-19 infection.
Fatigue or muscle weakness were found to be the most common symptoms, while people also reported sleep problems.
“Because Covid-19 is such a new disease, we are only beginning to understand its long-term effects on patients’ health,” said lead author Bin Cao, of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine.
The professor said the research highlights the need for ongoing care for patients after they are discharged from the hospital, especially those who have had serious infections.
“Our work also highlights the importance of conducting longer follow-up studies in larger populations to understand the full spectrum of effects that Covid-19 can have on humans,” he added.
The World Health Organization has said that for some people the virus carries a risk of serious side effects – even among young, otherwise healthy people who are not hospitalized.
The new study included 1,733 Covid-19 patients discharged from Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan between January and May last year.
Patients, who were on average 57 years old, were visited between June and September and answered questions about their symptoms and health-related quality of life.
Researchers also conducted physical examinations and laboratory tests.
The study found that 76 percent of the patients who participated in the follow-up (1,265 of 1,655) said they still had symptoms.
Fatigue or muscle weakness was reported with 63 percent, while 26 percent had sleep problems.
The study also looked at 94 patients whose blood antibody levels were recorded at the time of infection as part of another trial.
When these patients were tested again after six months, their levels of neutralizing antibodies were 52.5 percent lower.
The authors said this raised concerns about the possibility of re-infection with Covid-19, although they said larger samples would be needed to explain how immunity to the virus changes over time.
Monica Cortinovis, Norberto Perico and Giuseppe Remuzzi, of the Italian Istituto di Ricerche Pharmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, also published in a commentary article that there is uncertainty about the long-term consequences for the health of the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, there are few reports on the clinical picture of the aftermath of Covid-19,” they said. The latest study is therefore ‘relevant and timely’.
They said longer-term multidisciplinary research in the United States and Britain will help improve understanding and develop therapies to mitigate the long-term effects of COVID-19 on multiple organs and tissues.
© 2021 AFP