50% of mild and moderate COVID patients show symptoms after 6 months – study

Nearly 50% of people who contract mild or moderate cases of COVID-19 still experience symptoms six months later, according to a new study published by Israeli researchers. The research, which is expected to be published this month in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, evaluated 103 people over the age of 18 who had coronavirus over a six-month period between April 2020 and October 2020. The people had mild to moderate symptoms, which means they were not asymptomatic and they were not hospitalized for a more severe case of the disease. Participants were interviewed up to four times during the study. “It is very scary that after six months young people who were healthy and feeling great before the coronavirus are still showing symptoms,” said Dr Sarah Israel of Hadassah University. Medical Center, who helped write the report. At six months, 46% of patients had at least one unresolved symptom, most often fatigue (22%), changes in smell and taste (15%), or difficulty breathing (8%). The study showed that 44% of people had headaches, 41% fever, 39% muscle pain, and 38% dry cough as the first symptom of COVID, usually around the second day of illness onset. But many of these symptoms resolved rather quickly. In contrast, the changes in smell and taste, which usually appeared around the fourth day after the onset of illness, were among the most lasting.

A total of 14 symptoms were included in the final analysis, of which 12 were listed as symptoms of COVID-19 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in December 2020. These include change in taste, change in odor, fever, dry cough, productive cough, muscle pain, headache, runny nose, sore throat, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, vomiting or nausea. Additionally, participants (53%) complained of a non-CDC symptom, loss of appetite. Finally, fatigue, which is now listed as a symptom of CDC, did not appear explicitly in the original questionnaire but was self-reported by 18% of patients under “any other symptom”. Israel said other symptoms noted by some patients included memory loss, hair loss and depression – “many symptoms for which it is difficult to understand why patients suffered after COVID.” symptoms. These may be prolonged symptoms of COVID-19 or a post-COVID syndrome for which autonomic nervous system dysfunction has been proposed, although more research is needed to establish the causes. As noted, in terms of the underlying medical conditions, most patients were generally healthy before contracting the virus. Two of them had high blood pressure, six had respiratory disease, two had heart disease, and 16 were clinically obese. The study had several limitations, the report explained, including that the data collection method used in the study – calling patients at different intervals – could have caused recall bias. Additionally, patients were recruited through social media and word of mouth and therefore were a significantly younger cohort with higher incomes and higher education levels. She said she hoped the information in the report would give doctors a better understanding of COVID-19 in the long term. health complications. She also hopes it will serve to encourage young people to get vaccinated. “I think people now know it’s not an easy virus,” she said. “Even if you hardly get sick, the virus can affect you for months afterwards. The risk of side effects from the vaccine is low compared to the symptoms of the virus. Israel added that more work should be done to assess whether asymptomatic patients have similar symptoms after recovery. She also said the team hopes to continue investigating those involved in the current study to determine when their existing symptoms go away.