One in 8 adults (12. 7%) inflamed with SARS-CoV-2 have long-term symptoms due to COVID-19, suggests a giant Dutchman published in The Lancet.
The study provides one of the first comparisons of long-term symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection (often referred to as “long COVID”) with symptoms in an uninfected population, as well as the measurement of symptoms in Americans before and after COVID. -19 infections. The inclusion of uninfected populations for a more accurate prediction of the long-term prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms, as well as a greater identity of the main symptoms of prolonged COVID.
There is a pressing need for information that reports on the magnitude and extent of long-term symptoms experienced by some patients after COVID-19 illness. However, most previous studies on prolonged COVID have not looked at the frequency of those symptoms in other people who have not been diagnosed with COVID-19 or have looked at the symptoms of individual patients prior to covid-19 diagnosis.
Professor Rosmalen continues: “Our examination technique examines the maximum symptoms related to prolonged COVID, adding respiratory problems, fatigue and loss of taste and/or smell, either before a COVID-19 diagnosis or in other people who have not been diagnosed with COVID-19. This technique allows us to take into account pre-existing symptoms and symptoms in other uninfected individuals to offer an advanced definition of prolonged COVID and provide a reliable estimate of the maximum likely duration of COVID-19 occurrence in the general population. “
In this new study conducted in the Netherlands, researchers collected information by asking participants in the population-based Lifelines COVID-19 cohort to complete numerical questionnaires on 23 symptoms commonly related to prolonged COVID. The questionnaire was sent 24 times to the same other people between March 2020 and August 2021, meaning that participants who had COVID-19 during this era became inflamed with the alpha variant of SARS-CoV-2 or earlier variants. Most of the knowledge was collected prior to the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine in the Netherlands, so the number of vaccinated participants was too small to be analyzed in this study.
Participants were registered as positive for COVID-19 if they had a positive control or diagnosis of COVID-19 through a doctor. Of 76,422 participants, 4231 (5. 5%) participants with COVID-19 were matched with 8462 controls taking into account gender, age, and completion time of questionnaires indicating a COVID-19 diagnosis.
The researchers found that several symptoms were new or more severe 3 to 5 months after having COVID-19, compared to symptoms before a COVID-19 diagnosis and the group, suggesting that those symptoms may be considered as the main symptoms of prolonged COVID-19. .
The main symptoms recorded were chest pain, shortness of breath, pain when breathing, muscle pain, loss of taste and/or smell, tingling in hands/feet, lump in the throat, feeling of cold and heat at your choice, heaviness in arms and legs. Legs and disorders generales. fatiga. La severity of these symptoms reached a plateau 3 months after infection without further decrease. Other symptoms that particularly accumulated 3 to 5 months after a COVID-19 diagnosis included headache, itchy eyes, dizziness, back pain, and nausea.
PhD student and first of the study, Aranka Ballering, says: “These basic symptoms have major implications for long-term research, as those symptoms can be used to distinguish between post-COVID-19 status and non-COVID-19 related symptoms.
Among the examined participants who submitted information about pre-COVID symptoms, the researchers found that 21. 4% (381/1782) of COVID-19 positive participants, compared to 8. 7% (361/4130) of the group, experienced at least one accumulation in moderately severe symptoms number one 3 months or more after SARs-CoV-2 infection. This implies that in 12. 7% of COVID-19 patients, their new or severely increasing symptoms 3 months after COVID can be attributed to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Aranka Ballering adds, “By examining symptoms in an uninfected control organization and in Americans before and after SARS-CoV-2 infection, we were able to detect symptoms that would possibly have been the result of non-infectious facets of the disease. , such as the tension caused by restrictions and uncertainty. “
She continues: “The post-COVID-19 state, also known as prolonged COVID, is a pressing factor with an increasing number of human casualties. Understanding the key symptoms and prevalence of post-COVID-19 in the general population represents a major priority for our ability to design studies that can ultimately have successful health care responses to the long-term symptoms of COVID-19. “
The authors acknowledge some limitations of the study. This study comes from patients inflamed with the alpha variant or earlier variants of SARS-CoV-2 and has no knowledge of inflamed Americans around the time when delta or omicron variants caused peak infections. In addition, due to asymptomatic infection, the prevalence of COVID-19 in this study would possibly be underestimated. Another limitation of this study is that from the beginning of knowledge gathering, other symptoms, such as brain fog, are known to be potentially applicable to a long definition of COVID, however, this study did not read about those symptoms. In addition, the study was conducted in one region and did not come with an ethnically varied population.
Professor Judith Rosmalen states that “long-term studies come with symptoms of intellectual fitness (e. g. symptoms of depression and anxiety), as well as other post-infectious symptoms that we may simply not assess in this study (such as mental confusion, insomnia and post-infectives). exertional discomfort). We have not been able to investigate what might cause any of the symptoms seen after COVID-19 in this study, but we hope that long-term studies can provide insight into the mechanisms involved. In addition, due to the timing of this study, we were unable to assess the effect of vaccination against COVID-19 and other variants of SARS-CoV-2 on prolonged COVID symptoms. We hope that long-term studies will provide answers about the effects of these factors.
Writing in a similar commentary, Professor Christopher Brightling and Dr. Rachael Evans of the University of Leicester’s Institute of Lung Health (who was not involved in the study) notes: “This is a major advance of previous estimates of COVID prevalence as it includes adapting to the uninfected organisation and explaining symptoms prior to COVID-19 infection The symptom trend observed by Ballering and colleagues was similar to previous reports with fatigue and difficulty in Breathing among the most common symptoms, but is appealing to other symptoms as chest pain was more of a feature of those with prolonged COVID compared to uninfected controls. [. . . ] Current evidence supports the concept that prolonged COVID is not unusual and can persist for at least 2 years, severe consumptive illness occurs in a minority. The case definition of prolonged COVID wants to be further improved, potentially to describe other types of prolonged COVID, for which greater mechanical understanding is essential.
The lancet
Ballering, AV, et al. (2022) Somatic persistence after COVID-19 in the Netherlands: an observational cohort study. The Lancet. doi. org/10. 1016/S0140-6736(22)01214-4.
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