The long-term effects of COVID-19 have been a common topic since the virus started to become widespread almost two years ago now. Several different symptoms have been shown to persist in many people for months. Let’s take a look at these and other details regarding those symptoms.
What Is Long COVID?
Long COVID is when a COVID patient experiences symptoms that persist for a long period of time. According to the WHO, symptoms remain for at least two months and begin showing up within a few months of contracting the virus.
Commonly Experienced Symptoms
The most common long COVID symptoms are a partial or total loss of taste and/or smell, heart palpitations, pain in the chest, shortness of breath, fatigue, issues with cognition, and weak muscles.
One study out of Harvard showed that there might be a higher risk of certain COVID patients being diagnosed with some neurological disorders and diabetes in the future.
Prevalence of Persisting Symptoms
According to one study that was carried out by Oxford University involving the data of 270,000 COVID patients, long-term symptoms affect about 37% of those who survive contracting the virus. It also appears to be more likely for people who had severe COVID to experience persisting symptoms.
A research study out of China concluded that between 20% and 30% of those COVID patients who were considered moderately ill experienced lung issues a year after being released from the hospital, while 54% of those severely ill patients had lung issues a year later.
The good news is that the symptoms do seem to disappear eventually, though it may take quite a while for them to go away completely. However, even if symptoms seem to have disappeared, they may come back later on, which has unfortunately been the case for some people with long COVID.
Try Getting Vaccinated
Simply getting vaccinated may actually help alleviate persisting COVID-19 symptoms. However, more research needs to be done in this arena.