Mild, persistent symptoms of Covid lead to worse long-term overall health than going to intensive care

Coronavirus patients with persistent but mild symptoms who need to recover at home are more likely to experience poor health three months later than those with more serious illnesses who were treated in hospital, according to a study.

Researchers at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands evaluated 124 patients several weeks after their recovery.

The patients were compared on the basis of the severity of the disease, the condition of their lungs and their general health.

In total, 27 patients developed mild symptoms, 51 had moderate cases, 26 were classified as “severe” and 20 were classified as “critical”.

In the majority of all patients, the lungs recovered well, but the impact on other aspects of their health was more significant for people with mild and prolonged cases, most of whom had been left at home. to recover.

The most common long-term problems were fatigue, shortness of breath, and chest pain.

Three months after infection, about 22 percent of referred mild cases were still unable to perform a six-minute walk test, compared with just 16 percent of critical cases.

Meanwhile, more than one in five mild cases (22%) suffered from depression three months later, compared to one in ten (10%) among patients deemed “critical.”

“ Since we did not find any radiological, pulmonary function, inflammatory or major exercise capacity abnormalities in these patients with mild illness referred after three months, the explanations for their poor health remain uncertain at this stage. ” , write the researchers in their study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Researchers say this group of mild cases is not representative of all people with mild symptoms, but shows that some coronavirus patients develop prolonged symptoms that have important long-term implications.

“ It appears that there is a clear subgroup of patients who initially exhibited mild symptoms of COVID-19 and then continued to experience long-term persistent complaints and limitations, ” explains the first author of the research Bram van den Borst.

“What is striking is that we hardly found any abnormalities in the lungs of these patients.

“Given the variety and severity of complaints and the plausible size of this subgroup, there is an urgent need for further research into the explanations and treatment options.”

All Covid-19 patients discharged from hospital were recruited for the study and patients with symptoms for more than six weeks were also referred to the assessment program by their general practitioner.

Scans of the lungs found that in 99% of cases, the opacities of the ground glass were reduced – where the air spaces in their lungs filled with a substance, usually pus, blood, or water.

Of those with mild illness, 93 percent had chest x-rays that returned to normal.

However, over a third (36%) of the patients had mental and cognitive problems three months later.

But while the lungs themselves recovered in three months, more than two-thirds (69%) suffered from fatigue and 64% of patients had some form of functional impairment.

Researchers in the latest study did not link their study to the unexplained phenomenon of “long covid”, despite the similarity of long-lasting symptoms.

More than 60,000 Britons are believed to be affected by persistent symptoms of Covid-19, including fatigue, shortness of breath and pain.

Data from the COVERSCAN study showed nearly 70% of the volunteers had damage to one or more organs, including the heart and lungs, four months after first overcoming the infection.

The COVERSCAN study is one of many studies examining the long-term damage inflicted by Covid-19 to major organs. It concerns 500 survivors.

Dr Amitava Banerjee, one of the researchers at University College London, said 25% of patients had lesions to two or more organs.

The two-year study is being conducted by the medical company Perspectum, the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and the Mayo Clinic.