Most COVID-19 hospital patients still have symptoms after 6 months

COVID-19, the disease at the heart of the global pandemic, exhibits a variety of symptoms, the most common being fever, dry cough, and fatigue.

It can vary widely in severity, with some people not noticing they have the disease and others requiring hospitalization and mechanical ventilation. To date, data shows COVID-19 is responsible for more than 1.9 million deaths.

While the immediate symptoms and progression of COVID-19 disease have been well documented, the long-term effects of COVID-19 have received less attention.

Growing anecdotal evidence and sighting reports have indicated that many people continue to experience symptoms related to COVID-19 long after their official recovery.

Nicknamed “long-lasting COVID,” the symptoms that people frequently report are fatigue, cough, muscle pain, chest pain, heart palpitations and rashes.

The researchers behind this article wanted to better understand the prevalence of these symptoms and the associated risk factors that make a person more likely to experience them months after discharge.

With these goals in mind, researchers conducted a study of 1,733 patients who were discharged from a hospital in Wuhan, China, between January 7 and May 29, 2020, after being diagnosed with COVID-19. .

Participants had a follow-up appointment an average of 186 days after discharge. During the appointment, each person had a face-to-face interview with a doctor to determine the symptoms they still had. They also underwent lab tests, a physical exam, and a 6-minute walk test.

Additionally, a subset of 349 participants took a lung function test, and 94 people who had had antibody tests when their infection was most severe received a follow-up antibody test.

Researchers found that 76% of participants still had at least one symptom of COVID-19 during their follow-up appointment.

The most common symptom was muscle weakness or fatigue, which affected 63% of study participants. The authors report that 26% of participants had difficulty sleeping and 23% suffered from anxiety or depression.

Among those who completed the lung function test, the researchers found a correlation between the severity of the person’s initial COVID-19 infection and their lung function during follow-up.

As many as 56% of people who needed ventilation in hospital saw a reduction in the flow of oxygen into the bloodstream during their follow-up. Among those who did not need oxygen, this affected 22%.

There was also a correlation between the severity of the disease and the results of the 6-minute walk test: 29% of people who required ventilation were below the lower limit of the normal range, compared with 24% of those who did not. did not need oxygen.

In a sample of 822 participants, 13% had poorer kidney function than when they were in the hospital.

Finally, when looking at the data from the 94 people who had an antibody test, the researchers found that the number of people who tested positive for neutralizing antibodies increased from 96.2% to 58.5%. Average levels of neutralizing antibodies had also dropped by 47%.

Corresponding author Professor Bin Cao – from the National Center for Respiratory Medicine, China-Japan Friendship Hospital and Capital Medical University, Beijing, China – notes: “[b]Because COVID-19 is such a new disease, we are only beginning to understand some of its long-term effects on patient health.

“Our analysis indicates that most patients continue to live with at least some of the effects of the virus after discharge from hospital and highlights the need for post-discharge care, especially for those with severe infections. “

– Teacher. Bin Cao

“Our work also highlights the importance of conducting longer follow-up studies in larger populations in order to understand the full spectrum of effects COVID-19 can have on people,” adds Professor Cao.

The research had certain limitations. First, the sample size of those who underwent antibody level testing was small, so more research is needed to confirm these results.

Additionally, participants’ lung function and exercise capacity were unknown prior to their infection, making it impossible to confirm that COVID-19 was the cause of the problems with these factors.

Finally, the study does not show whether the symptoms remained constant or whether they did not appear or worsen until after infection.

Nonetheless, the research is the largest study of its kind to date, and it supports anecdotal and observational evidence that the medical community must take the long-term effects of COVID-19 seriously.

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