One in ten people who still had mild COVID-19 had EIGHT months later persistent symptoms such as fatigue and loss of smell
- Researchers compared about 300 health workers infected with COVID-19 to about 1,000 who were not yet
- A total of 26% of the survivors had at least one symptom that lasted longer than two months, and 14.9% said that they had symptoms that persisted after eight months.
- In the COVID-19 group, 11% said that their symptoms affected their work, social or domestic life compared to 2% in the control group.
- Only between 1% and 2% of coronavirus survivors said they experienced concentration or memory disorders.
People with mild cases of COVID-19 still experience symptoms eight months later, a new study indicates.
Researchers found that one in ten health workers reported fatigue or loss of taste and smell more than 30 weeks after removing the infection.
What’s more, these moderate to severe symptoms have negatively affected their work, social or domestic life.
The team from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, says that the findings provide further evidence for the importance of vaccination.
A new study found that 26% of COVID-19 survivors had at least one symptom that lasted longer than two months, and 14.9% said they had symptoms that persisted after eight months. Pictured: A health department employee is training soldiers of the National Army of the New York Army to register people on iPads in New Rochelle, New York, on March 14th.
In the COVID-19, group 11% said their symptoms affected their work, social, or home life compared with 2% in the control group.
For the study, published in JAMA, the team collected data from the COMMUNITY study conducted in Sweden, which looks at immunity to coronavirus.
In the first wave, between 15 April and 8 May last year, blood samples were collected from 2,149 employees at Danderyd Hospital in Stockholm.
Every four months, blood samples were drawn and participants answered questions about long-term symptoms and their impact on quality of life.
In a third follow-up, in January 2021, the team looked at 323 health workers who had mild COVID-19 at least eight months earlier and compared them to 1,072 employees who had not had the disease up to that point.
The results showed that 26 percent of those who tested positive in the past had at least one symptom that lasted longer than two months compared to nine percent in the control group.
A total of 21.4 percent said their symptoms still linger after four months and 14.9 percent said the symptoms persist after eight months.
The most common long-term symptom was odor loss, which was experienced at least two months later by 14.6 percent and eight months later by nine percent.
Rounding off the top three prolonged symptoms were fatigue and loss of taste, respectively.
Eleven percent of the COVID-19 group said their symptoms affected their work, social, or home life compared to two percent in the control group.
“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 lead researcher for the COMMUNITY study. . Dr Charlotte Thålin, specialist at Danderyd Hospital and the Karolinska Institutet, said in a statement.
‘Fatigue and breathing problems are also more common in participants who have had COVID-19 but who do not occur to the same extent.
Thålin noted that only between one and two percent of COVID-19 survivors said they experience concentration or memory disorders.
“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,” she said.