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