United States: Amidst the initial surge of the pandemic, a study suggests that 5% of individuals who contracted a mild form of COVID-19 still grapple with persistent symptoms after three years. American researchers unearthed that respiratory and neurological complications persist among those afflicted by the virus in 2020.
Moreover, the study, tracking over 135,000 Covid cases, unveiled a 34 percent heightened risk of organ-related issues among severely affected individuals requiring hospitalization, according to the reports by Daily Mail.
Esteemed experts have hailed these revelations as pivotal and cautioned against underestimating the gravity of the virus.
Simultaneously, other research indicates that Covid booster shots exhibit a mere 52% efficacy in thwarting infection after four weeks, dwindling to 20% after five months.
Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a distinguished clinical epidemiologist at Washington University and the study’s senior author, said, “We aren’t sure why the virus’s effects linger for so long. Possibly, it has to do with viral persistence, chronic inflammation, immune dysfunction, or all the above. We tend to think of infections as mostly short-term illnesses with health effects that manifest around the time of infection.”
Furthermore, he stated, “Our data challenges this notion. I feel Covid continues to teach us — and this is an important new lesson — that a brief, seemingly innocuous or benign encounter with the virus can still lead to health problems years later,” according to the reports by Daily Mail.
The expert also added, “Addressing this knowledge gap is critical to enhance our understanding of long Covid and will help inform care for people suffering from long Covid.”
He emphasized the urgency of bridging this knowledge gap to better grasp the complexities of long Covid and to facilitate optimal care for afflicted individuals, as highlighted by Daily Mail.
Government data in the United States indicates that up to 10 percent of COVID-19-infected individuals endure long-term symptoms, often self-diagnosed as long Covid. This term encompasses an array of lingering symptoms following Covid infection, persisting for months or even years thereafter.
In the UK, approximately 1.9 million individuals are afflicted, grappling with a spectrum of symptoms ranging from fatigue to musculoskeletal pain.
Analyzing data from 114,000 veterans with mild Covid, 20,000 hospitalized patients, and 5.2 million uninfected veterans, researchers found a 23 percent risk of long-term Covid one year post-infection, declining to 16 percent after two years.
Alarmingly, even among non-hospitalized individuals, Covid contributed to a loss of 10 healthy years per 1,000 individuals, three years post-infection. For hospitalized patients, this figure soared to 90 years per 1,000 individuals.
Comparatively, heart disease and cancer in the US result in approximately 50 years of lost healthy life, while strokes account for roughly ten years per 1,000 individuals.
Published in Nature Medicine, the study underscores the imperative of not only preventing severe disease but also mitigating the risk of post-acute and long-term health deterioration in individuals with mild Covid.
Nevertheless, the researchers acknowledge the study’s limitations, primarily comprising older, white, male veterans, potentially skewing the findings, Daily Mail reported.
Also, since the participants contracted the virus at a time when the Covid vaccines had not been manufactured, their symptoms might have been more severe.
Concurring with Dr Al-Aly, he was quick to emphasize how people should not trivialize the fact that long Covid is the new Covid. He was emphatic that sometimes, in the third year of the viral illness, it may still remain active in the gut, lungs, or the brain.
The need to monitor the Lung Tribune Covid-19 impact persists, and that based on recent studies, vigilance remains crucial as new variants such as the Omicron emerges.