People With Mild COVID-19 Can Suffer From Symptoms For Months, Says Study

A new study suggests that COVID-19 patients who experience even the mildest illness due to the disease, can possibly suffer from its symptoms for months. The study concluded this by following up with non-critical COVID-19 adults after a two-month period.

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Now published in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection, the study has been conducted by researchers from France. It mapped 150 patients with non-critical COVID-19 infection, as confirmed by RT-PCR at Tours University Hospital from March 17 to June 3, 2020.

The researchers found that two-thirds of patients who had a mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infection reported symptoms even after 60 days of falling ill. In addition, they pointed out that more than a third of the target group still felt sick or in a worse condition than when their coronavirus infection began.

These prolonged symptoms of the COVID-19 disease were found to be more likely among patients aged 40 to 60 years and those who required hospitalization. The study now serves as the most recent confirmation of lingering effects of the COVID-19 disease in humans.

"We were able to assess the evolution of the disease and demonstrate that even the mildest presentation was associated with medium-term symptoms requiring follow up," Claudia Carvalho-Schneider and colleagues wrote in the research paper.

The prolonged effect

As per the study, 66% of adult COVID-19 patients reported at least one of 62 symptoms associated with the disease. The most common of these were the loss of smell and taste, shortness of breath, and fatigue.

In line with previous such research, the new study wanted to examine this prolonged effect from COVID-19 in detail and hence identify its risk. The study, however, focused on the patients with non-critical COVID-19 infection since much of the existing research was based on critical patients.

Reuters

In the pursuit of such answers, the study was able to find that even the patients with mildest of COVID-19 infection displayed prolonged symptoms of the disease. It is a stark reminder of the fact that ¡°the COVID-19 pandemic will involve a care burden long after its end,¡± scientists note in the study.

Thus post-COVID care will be essential for many in the wake of the pandemic. More research is needed to elucidate as to how the infection really sticks to the patients for so long.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)