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Blood collection specialist Niilo Juntunen removes IV from recovered coronavirus patient Monica Jacobs as she finishes donating convalescent plasma at Bloodworks Northwest’s Central Seattle Donor Center during the global outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). ), in Seattle, Washington, September 2, 2020.
Lindsey Wasson | Reuters
A new study has identified the main factors that make patients more likely to suffer from the coronavirus in the long term.
“Long Covid” is the term given to people who had a confirmed (or suspected) case of coronavirus and who recover from the initial infection but continue to suffer from a wide range of symptoms, from shortness of breath and migraines to fatigue. chronicle.
A new analysis by researchers at King’s College London, using data from the COVID Symptom Study app, shows that “one in 20 people with Covid-19 is likely to have symptoms for 8 weeks or more.”
The study, released Wednesday, analyzed data from 4,182 users of the COVID Symptom Study app who had tested positive for the virus and had been constantly tracking their health.
The team found that older or overweight people, women, people with asthma, and those with a greater number of different symptoms in the first week of their illness were more likely to develop “prolonged Covid.”
Risk factor’s
Digging into the risk factors more closely, the study by King researchers found that prolonged Covid affects about 10% of young people ages 18 to 49 who get sick with Covid-19, and the percentage of people affected increases to 22% for those over 70 years of age. .
Weight also influences and affects people with a slightly higher average BMI (body mass index).
Women were much more likely to suffer from prolonged Covid than men (14.5% compared to 9.5%), but only in the younger age group.
The researchers also found that people who reported a wide range of initial symptoms were more likely to develop long-term Covid, as were people with asthma, although there were no clear links to other underlying health conditions.
Regarding the commonly reported symptoms of prolonged Covid, the research identified two main groups of symptoms; One was dominated by respiratory symptoms such as coughing and shortness of breath, fatigue, and headaches.
The second group “was clearly multisystem and affected many parts of the body, including the brain, the gut and the heart,” King’s noted.
Predictive model
The researchers have now used these findings, which will be published as a preprint on Medrxiv (distributes unpublished eprints on health sciences) and has not yet been peer-reviewed, to develop a model that can predict who is most at risk. . Long Covid by looking at an individual’s age, sex, and early symptom count.
Lead researchers Dr. Claire Steves and Professor Tim Spector said the research could be used to help identify early interventions and research aimed at preventing and treating long-term Covid.
“It is important that we use the knowledge we have gained from the first wave of the pandemic to reduce the long-term impact of the second,” said Steves, a clinical scholar and lead author of the study.
“This research could already pave the way for long-time Covid treatment and preventive strategies. We urge everyone to join the effort by downloading the app and taking just one minute every day to record your health.”
Long Covid is by no means a universal experience and, in fact, many people who have contracted the new coronavirus have had a mild illness or have been asymptomatic.
The King researchers found that while the majority of people with Covid-19 reported returning to normal in 11 days or less, about one in seven (13.3%, 558 users) had symptoms of Covid- 19 that lasted at least four weeks, with around one in 20 (4.5%, 189 users) remaining ill for eight weeks and one in 50 (2.3%, 95 users) suffering from it for more than 12 weeks .
“These are conservative estimates, which, due to the strict definitions used, may underestimate the scope of Long-Covid,” King’s warned.
The UK’s National Health Service announced in early October that it would provide specialist clinic help to those with long-term symptoms of the coronavirus.
