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More than three-quarters of people hospitalized with Covid-19 still suffered from at least one symptom after six months, according to a study published on Saturday that scientists say shows the need for more research on the lingering effects of the coronavirus.
The research, which was published in the Lancet medical journal and involved hundreds of patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is one of the few that tracks long-term symptoms of Covid-19 infection.
It found that fatigue or muscle weakness were the most common symptoms, while people also reported having trouble sleeping.
“Because Covid-19 is such a new disease, we are only beginning to understand some of its long-term effects on patient health,” said lead author Bin Cao of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine.
The professor said the research highlighted the need for ongoing care for patients after they have been discharged from the hospital, particularly those who have had serious infections.
“Our work also underscores the importance of conducting longer follow-up studies in larger populations to understand the full spectrum of effects that Covid-19 can have on people,” he added.
The World Health Organization has said that the virus poses a risk to some people for ongoing serious effects, even among young, otherwise healthy people who were not hospitalized.
The new study included 1,733 Covid-19 patients discharged from Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan between January and May last year.
The patients, who averaged 57 years old, were visited between June and September and answered questions about their symptoms and health-related quality of life.
The researchers also performed physical examinations and laboratory tests.
The study found that 76 percent of the patients who participated in the follow-up (1,265 of 1,655) said they still had symptoms.
63 percent reported fatigue or muscle weakness, while 26 percent had trouble sleeping.
The study also looked at 94 patients whose blood antibody levels were recorded at the peak of infection as part of another trial.
When these patients were retested after six months, their neutralizing antibody levels were 52.5 percent lower.
The authors said this raises concerns about the possibility of a Covid-19 reinfection, although they said larger samples would be needed to clarify how immunity to the virus changes over time.
In a commentary article also published in The Lancet, Monica Cortinovis, Norberto Perico and Giuseppe Remuzzi of Italy’s Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS said there was uncertainty about the long-term health consequences of the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, there are few reports on the clinical picture of Covid-19 sequelae,” they said, adding that the latest study was, therefore, “relevant and timely.”
They said that longer-term multidisciplinary research being carried out in the United States and Britain would help improve understanding and help develop therapies to “mitigate the long-term consequences of COVID-19 on multiple organs and tissues.”
