<
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/long-covid-stemmed-from-mild-cases-of-covid-19-in-most-people/>
"Even mild COVID-19 cases can have major and long-lasting effects on people’s
health. That is one of the key findings from our recent multicountry study on
long COVID-19—or long COVID—recently published in the
Journal of the American
Medical Association.
Long COVID is defined as the continuation or development of symptoms three
months after the initial infection from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes
COVID-19. These symptoms last for at least two months after onset with no other
explanation.
We found that a staggering 90 percent of people living with long COVID
initially experienced only mild illness with COVID-19. After developing long
COVID, however, the typical person experienced symptoms including fatigue,
shortness of breath, and cognitive problems such as brain fog—or a combination
of these—that affected daily functioning. These symptoms had an impact on
health as severe as the long-term effects of traumatic brain injury. Our study
also found that women have twice the risk of men and four times the risk of
children for developing long COVID.
We analyzed data from 54 studies reporting on over 1 million people from 22
countries who had experienced symptoms of COVID-19. We counted how many people
with COVID-19 developed clusters of new long-COVID symptoms and determined how
their risk of developing the disease varied based on their age, sex, and
whether they were hospitalized for COVID-19.
We found that patients who were hospitalized for COVID-19 had a greater risk of
developing long COVID—and of having longer-lasting symptoms—compared with
people who had not been hospitalized. However, because the vast majority of
COVID-19 cases do not require hospitalization, many more cases of long COVID
have arisen from these milder cases despite their lower risk. Among all people
with long COVID, our study found that nearly one out of every seven were still
experiencing these symptoms a year later, and researchers don’t yet know how
many of these cases may become chronic."
Via Diane A.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
