Persistent Covid: the most frequent symptoms and the sequelae that last for weeks, according to 60,000 patients | Coronavirus

Official statistics show that 18 million have recovered from Covid-19, but these figures hide a serious and intriguing situation that has worsened with several “recovered”: Persistent Covid-19.

Over time, the number of patients reporting symptoms lasting for weeks or months has increased. That affects not only those who have had a severe Covid-19, but also those affected by a mild type disease.

Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and leader of a study based on the symptoms reported in the Covid Symptom Study app, said that more than 300,000 people in the UK reported signs that lasted more than a month and around 60,000 of them for more than three months.

There are several reports of patients unable to perform daily tasks, exercise or even eat properly, in this case, because the taste has completely changed. There are other more serious conditions, such as heart inflammation, depression, pulmonary fibrosis, and cognitive decline.

The leader of a campaign to conduct more studies on persistent Covid-19, Nisreen Alwan, a professor of public health at the University of Southampton, maintains that authorities:

• give support and recognition to those suffering from a long-term illness;
• prepare health systems after dimensioning the problem;
• that people, when making risky decisions, know that death is not the only bad consequence of the disease.

“Persistent Covid-19 is not a story stemming from the pandemic. It is the story, because most people who think they will be fine if they get the virus, or should only be concerned about not infecting others, need to know the risks of prolonged illness, “Alwan wrote on his Twitter profile.

What are the most common symptoms?

Tim Spector presented some preliminary results on expanded Covid-19 in an online seminar promoted by the renowned scientific journal “British Medical Journal”.

“If you have a persistent cough, hoarseness, headache, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and shortness of breath in the first week, you are two to three times more likely to develop symptoms for a long time.”

• ‘After 12 weeks, I still have no strength’: Chronic fatigue syndrome caused by coronavirus

Data collected through the Covid Symptom Study app, which has more than 4 million users, points to the most common symptoms related to this condition.

The two most reported signs are chronic fatigue (98%) and headache (91%).

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a long-term, debilitating disease in which the affected person experiences a number of symptoms. The most important of these is an exhaustion that does not improve with rest or sleep and that affects the patient in all aspects of her routine.

Second, the most common group of symptoms in patients with prolonged Covid-19 includes persistent cough, shortness of breath, and loss of smell (which also affects taste). See below for a full list of symptoms related to this health condition.

Spector also stated that persistent Covid-19 is twice more common in women, and they are usually around 40 years old. And 80% of people with symptoms for more than three weeks report that life has alternated between good days and bad days.

There are other factors that seem linked to this health condition, such as the immune response of each person. In this case, the presence of a high fever, a sign that the immune system is reacting to an invader, generally indicates that the infected patient will not develop a prolonged Covid-19, according to Spector.

But the data is still preliminary and require further analysis to obtain definitive conclusions.

According to a statement issued by the British government in early September, 10% of people with the most moderate form of Covid-19 had symptoms for more than a month and 2% for more than three months.

“Even if you have a lower risk of dying from Covid-19, if you are under 25, you can still have serious symptoms and consequences. There are people who have been with Covid-19 for six months, and it is prevalent among young people and still can infect others, “said British Health Minister Matt Hancock.

Many patients are still unclear if these symptoms will be permanent.

And it is worth remembering that this is not an exclusive image of Covid-19. There are records of persistent symptoms in patients with other infectious diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya, and mononucleosis.

Still, Spector, from King’s College London, told the British newspaper “The Guardian” that he has studied “more than 100 diseases, and Covid-19 is the strangest I have seen in my entire career.”

Complete list of persistent symptoms

In general, the more invasive (and long-lasting) the Covid-19 treatment received, the longer the Covid-19 recovery process usually takes.

According to the British study that used the app, most people with the mild form of the disease recover within two weeks. Among those with the most severe version, the period reaches three weeks.

A study conducted in Italy with 143 patients who left hospitalization for coronavirus found that 87% of them still had at least one symptom up to 60 days later. For 44.1%, there was a worsening of the quality of life.

The list published by the British health system on September 7 of patients with persistent symptoms associated with Covid-19 includes:

• respiratory signs or conditions such as persistent cough, shortness of breath, inflammation of the lung and pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary vascular disease;
• cardiovascular disease or signs, such as chest tightness, acute myocarditis, and heart failure;
• prolonged loss or change in taste and smell;
• mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and cognitive difficulties;
• inflammatory disorders such as myalgia, systemic inflammatory syndrome, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and neuralgic amyotrophy;
• gastrointestinal disorders such as diarrhea;
• persistent headache;
• fatigue, weakness and insomnia;
• kidney or liver dysfunction;
• bleeding disorders and thrombosis;
• lymphadenopathy;
• skin rash.

The data was collected from reports from hundreds of thousands of users of the previously mentioned Covid-19 symptom logging app.

Are people still infectious for months? What if the test was negative?

One of the problems related to this long-term health condition is the lack of recognition of the disease. Many did not have the test to confirm the diagnosis because they only had mild symptoms or there were no tests available at the beginning of the pandemic. Then they ended up in a certain diagnostic limbo.

Elly MacDonald, 37, was training for the London marathon when she began experiencing the first symptoms associated with Covid-19 in mid-March.

More than five months later, he still feels short of breath and extreme fatigue, but has not received any positive test results for the disease because the tests were only available by the government long after the symptoms appeared.

Because she felt helpless, she decided to change doctors. “Now I know that there are people who really take me seriously, and this is very important to my recovery. I just want my life back.”

Monique Jackson, who keeps a diary of her six months of persistent symptoms, also did not test positive. Throughout the entire process, “one person told me that I was obsessing over having Covid-19.”

In addition to the tests, which can fail in results, there is another important gap: do people with prolonged symptoms continue to transmit the disease during this period?

Officials and experts say that the great Most patients stop transmitting the virus up to two weeks after the first symptoms..

But there are extreme cases, like that of a patient Chinese still transmitting the disease 49 days later.

According to Tim Spector of King’s College London, data collected by the Covid Symptom Study app and tests carried out show that 9% of people with symptoms for more than six weeks could still transmit the new coronavirus.

But virologists linked to the analysis pointed out that there was a very low viral load in these patients and that they could hardly infect other people.

Six ‘types’ of Covid-19 and their symptoms

An analysis by researchers at King’s College London identified 6 “types” of Covid-19, each characterized by a specific set of symptoms.

There are at least six major “pictures” of the disease, based on data analysis performed using machine learning algorithms.

1. Flu-like illness without fever: headache, loss of smell, muscle pain, cough, sore throat, chest pain.

2. Flu-like condition with fever: headache, loss of smell, cough, sore throat, hoarseness, fever, loss of appetite.

3. Gastrointestinal quadro: headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, diarrhea, sore throat, chest pain, no cough.

4. Severe level 1 (fatigue): headache, loss of smell, cough, fever, hoarseness, chest pain, fatigue.

5. Severe level 2 (mental confusion): headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, cough, fever, hoarseness, sore throat, chest pain, fatigue, mental confusion, muscle pain.

6. Severe level 3 (abdominal and respiratory): headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, cough, fever, hoarseness, sore throat, chest pain, fatigue, mental confusion, muscle pain, shortness of breath, diarrhea, abdominal pain.

The scientists then investigated whether people who experienced a specific set of symptoms were more likely to need ventilation with a respirator or additional oxygen.

They found that a very low percentage, between 1.5% and 3.3%, of the people in groups 1, 2 and 3 required ventilation.

But the percentage of those who manifested symptoms in groups 3, 4 and 5 was 8.6%, 9.9% and 19.8%, respectively.

Furthermore, almost half of the patients in group 6 ended up in the hospital, compared to just 16% in group 1.