Fauci says new data suggests Covid “long” symptoms can last up to 9 months

New data suggests that people with Covid-19 may continue to suffer from symptoms for up to nine months after the initial infection, said White House chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, on Wednesday.

University of Washington researchers recently found that 30% of patients reported symptoms for up to nine months, Fauci told reporters during a press conference at the White House on Covid-19. People reported fatigue, shortness of breath, sleep disturbances and other symptoms that lasted for months, he said.

Symptoms of “Covid Long”, which the researchers are now calling post-acute sequelae of Covid-19, or PASC, can develop “well after” the infection, and the severity can vary from mild to “disabling,” he said. Fauci, also director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“The magnitude of the problem is not fully known,” he said, adding that PASC was also reported in people who did not need hospitalization and in people who had symptoms that were not part of their initial infection.

The update comes at a time when global medical experts are working to better diagnose and treat people with persistent Covid-19 symptoms.

So far, there have been a limited number of studies that discern what are the most common long Covid symptoms or how long they can last. Most of the focus has been on people with serious or fatal illnesses, not those who have recovered, but still report persistent side effects, sometimes called “long distance trucks”.

The National Institutes of Health launched an initiative to study Covid at length and identify potential causes and treatments for individuals, said Fauci. “What makes some people vulnerable while others recover quickly and have no sequelae?” he asked.

– CNBC’s Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this report.