Most of the symptoms in the Wuhan report were slightly more common in women. 81 percent reported at least one health problem, compared with 73 percent for men.
Reports of other respiratory illnesses like the 2003 outbreak of SARS, another type of coronavirus, suggest that some Covid survivors may experience after-effects for months or years. Most SARS patients recovered physically, but the researchers found that many had “worrying depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic symptoms” a year later.
Commenting on the Lancet study, researchers from Italy wrote that 38 percent of SARS survivors had decreased the flow of oxygen from their lungs 15 years later, adding that “Evidence of previous coronavirus outbreaks suggests some degree Lung damage could persist ”.
While people hospitalized for Covid may have more serious or prolonged physical problems, increasing evidence shows that even people who have never been hospitalized may have residual symptoms. Many of these patients seek care in the post-Covid clinics in the United States.
A recent survey by a patient-led research team included 3,762 participants, mostly women, from 56 countries, most of whom had not been hospitalized. Nearly two-thirds said they had symptoms for at least six months, with most saying they were tired and their symptoms got worse after physical or mental exertion, the report, which was not peer-reviewed. More than half of those affected said they had “cognitive dysfunction” with brain fog or difficulty thinking or concentrating.
Dr. Peluso noted that most Wuhan patients were hospitalized in the first half of 2020 and most were not treated with newer therapies like remdesivir or dexamethasone. It is therefore unclear whether people who received these treatments would now receive the same level of long-term term complications.
Even so, he and other doctors said the study’s portrait of persistent symptoms is true. Dr. Ferrante said that in the post-Covid recovery program where she treats patients, “pretty much everyone I see reports impaired physical or cognitive function, or both.”
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