COVID-19 could cause death for up to six months after infection

One of the largest studies in prolonged cases of COVID-19 demonstrated what many doctors suspected: many patients do not only suffer from a number of health problems six months after contagion, but also much higher risk of dying.

In the study, survivors showed a 59% increased risk of dying within six months contract the SARS-CoV-2 virus, study researchers reported in the journal Thursday Nature. The excess mortality translates into approximately eight dead Additional per thousand patients, worsening the hidden death toll from the pandemic as it is increasingly understood that many patients need to be rehospitalized, and some die, weeks after the viral infection has cleared.

“When we look at the acute phase, we only see the tip of the icebergSaid Ziyad Al-Aly, head of research and development at St. Louis VA Medical Center in Missouri, who led the study. “We’re starting to see a little bit below that iceberg, and it’s really alarming“.

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Al-Aly and his colleagues have documented the succession of debilitating effects affecting survivors months after diagnosis, from thrombi, strokes, diabetes and difficulty breathing until heart, liver and kidney damage, depression, anxiety and the loss of Memory. They also concluded that the risk of complications was much higher than with the flu. After discharge, symptoms such as diabetes, stroke, depression, anxiety, liver and kidney damage and even Memory loss

Globally, more than 143 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than three million have died from the disease. Some studies indicate that about 10% of patients can become a prolonged case of the disease.

Opioid concern

Al-Aly and his colleagues used the United States Department of Veterans Affairs National Health Care Databases – the largest integrated health care delivery system in the country – to analyze diagnoses, drug use. drugs and test results. Of 73,435 outpatients and 13,654 who required hospitalization up to six months after recovering from an acute case of COVID-19.

In the study, coronavirus survivors were more likely to have need assistance with additional medical problems that nearly five million users of the Veterans Health Administration system who did not have COVID-19 or were hospitalized. These include:

• affections respiratory
• system troubles nervous
• health problems mental
• troubles metabolic Yes cardiovascular
• discomfort
• tired
• pain musculoskeletal
• anemia

People who have experienced long-term symptoms have also shown increased use of various medications, such as antidepressants and medications to treat anxiety and pain.

“We are concerned about possible increase in suicide rates or possible increases in opioid overdose“Al-Aly said in an interview with Zoom.

It was concluded that patients with COVID-19 who survived hospitalization had a 51% higher risk of dying compared to 13,997 influenza patients who had also been hospitalized.

MM CP