Most of the symptoms in the Wuhan report were slightly more common among women, with 81 percent reporting at least one health problem, compared with 73 percent for men.
Reports on other respiratory illnesses, such as the SARS outbreak in 2003, another type of coronavirus, suggest that some Covid survivors may experience side effects for months or years. Most SARS patients recovered physically, but the researchers found that many had “worrying levels of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic symptoms” a year later.
In a commentary accompanying the Lancet study, researchers in Italy wrote that 38 percent of SARS survivors decreased the flow of oxygen from their lungs 15 years later, adding that “evidence of previous coronavirus outbreaks suggests that some degree of lung damage can persist “.
Although people who have been hospitalized by Covid may have more serious or lasting physical problems, a growing body of evidence shows that even people who have never been hospitalized can have residual symptoms. Many of these patients are seeking care at post-Covid clinics that have emerged in the United States.
A recent survey by a patient-led research team involved 3,762 participants, mostly women, from 56 countries – most of whom had not been hospitalized. Nearly two-thirds reported experiencing symptoms for at least six months, with the majority saying they had fatigue and that their symptoms worsened after physical or mental exertion, according to the report, which was not peer-reviewed. More than half of people with symptoms said they experienced “cognitive impairment” involving brain fog or difficulty thinking or concentrating.
Dr. Peluso noted that since Wuhan’s patients were hospitalized in the first half of 2020, most were not treated with some more recently recognized therapies, such as remdesivir or dexamethasone, so it is not clear whether people receiving these treatments now they would encounter the same degree of term complications.
Still, he and other doctors said the study’s picture of persistent symptoms rings true. Dr. Ferrante said that in the post-Covid recovery program, where she treats patients, “almost everyone I am treating is reporting impaired physical or cognitive function or both.”
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