50% of patients with mild and moderate COVID experience symptoms after 6 months – study

Nearly half of people who contract mild or moderate cases of COVID-19 still have symptoms six months later, according to a new study published by Israeli researchers. The survey, which is scheduled to be published this month in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, assessed 103 people over 18 who had coronavirus over a six-month period between April 2020 and October 2020. People had mild to moderate symptoms, which means that, although they were not asymptomatic, they were not hospitalized with a most severe case Participants were interviewed up to four times during the study. “It is very scary that, after six months, young people who were healthy and feeling well before the coronavirus still show symptoms,” said Dr. Sarah Israel of Hadassah -University Medical Center, who helped write the report. At six months, 46% of patients had at least one unresolved symptom, most commonly fatigue (22%), changes in smell and taste (15%) or breathing difficulties (8%). The study showed that 44% of people had headaches, 41% fever, 39% muscle pain and 38% dry cough as their first symptom of COVID, usually around the second day of disease onset. But many of these symptoms resolved relatively quickly. In contrast, changes in smell and taste, which usually appeared around the fourth day after the onset of the disease, were among the most lasting.

A total of 14 symptoms were included in the final analysis, 12 of which were listed as symptoms of COVID-19 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in December 2020. These include change in taste, change in smell, fever, dryness cough, productive cough, muscle pain, headache, runny nose, sore throat, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, vomiting and nausea. In addition, more than half of the participants (53%) complained about a non-CDC symptom: loss of appetite. Finally, fatigue, which is now listed as a symptom of the CDC, did not appear explicitly in the original questionnaire, but was reported by the person himself by 18% of patients in “any other symptoms”. 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 were experiencing these post-COVID”. The report explained that “COVID Long is emerging as a phenomenon where patients experience long-term unresolved symptoms. These may be prolonged symptoms of COVID-19, or a post-COVID syndrome for which autonomic nervous system dysfunction has been proposed, although further research is needed to establish the causes. ”As noted, in terms of underlying medical conditions, most patients were generally healthy before contracting the virus. Two of them had hypertension, six had respiratory disease, two had heart disease and 16 were clinically obese. The study had several limitations, the report explained, including that the data collection method used – calling patients at various intervals – may have caused memory bias. In addition, patients were recruited through social networks and word of mouth and, therefore, constituted a much younger cohort, with higher incomes and levels of education. Israel said it hoped the information in the report would allow doctors to better understand the long years of COVID-19. term health complications. She also hopes that this will serve to encourage young people to get vaccinated. “I think people now know that this is not an easy virus,” she said. “Even if you are hardly sick, the virus can affect you for months afterwards. The risk of side effects from the vaccine is small compared to the symptoms of the virus. “Israel added that additional work should be done to assess whether asymptomatic patients have similar symptoms after recovery. She also said the team hopes to continue researching the people involved in the current study to determine when the existing symptoms will go away.