The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted thousands of death certificates in the past because COVID-19 deaths were linked to long-term COVID, the persistent symptoms that other people struggle with for weeks, months, or even years after their initial recovery from a coronavirus infection.
New findings from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, released Wednesday, count at least 3544 long-term COVID-related deaths through June 2022; Several researchers say the actual number is most likely underestimated.
The count represents 0. 3% of the more than one million COVID death certificates the firm reviewed. They searched for keywords in the cause of reported death similar to what doctors call “post-acute COVID-19 sequelae,” or PASC, and added terms like “chronic COVID,” “long COVID,” “long-distance COVID,” and “post-COVID syndrome. “
The way to classify those symptoms through coroners and doctors who complete the death certificate has evolved throughout the pandemic, they say.
“We have limited data on the long mortality of COVID,” Farida Ahmad, director of the NCHS, one of the report’s authors, told a panel of the company’s outside advisers in October. “Lately there is no estimate of the number of long-term COVID deaths in the United States and this is due to a number of challenges. Long-term COVID diagnostic rules evolve over time as we better perceive the disease, so there is no undeniable diagnostic verification for prolonged COVID. “
No new federal rules have yet been released to standardize reporting of those deaths. Ahmad told the panel earlier this year that the company plans to publish its new recommendations in a component of the report’s findings. An NCHS spokesperson said the company still plans to factor in new recommendations, but said there is no release date yet.
Nearly 8 in 10 reported COVID deaths occurred among seniors, with Americans ages 75 to 84 accounting for the percentage (28. 8%) of those deaths. About 8 out of 10 reported deaths were white, and rates in men were higher than in female age groups.
Reports of long-term COVID-related deaths have varied widely over the course of the pandemic, with many reported around the Omicron surge last winter. The highest number per month in February 2022.
More than two-thirds of the deaths that mentioned prolonged COVID were on the certificate that listed COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death. Heart disease is the most common underlying cause at the time, cited in 8. 6% of deaths from prolonged COVID.
Scientists continue to examine how to diagnose and treat the wide variety of reported long-term COVID symptoms, which can range from shortness of breath to adjustments in the menstrual cycle. Other non-unusual symptoms come with fatigue; “post-workout discomfort,” i. e. feeling worse after training or exertion; “Brain fog”, headache, cough, chest or abdominal pain.
Patients may have organ damage that may persist long after the acute phase of infection has ended.
A review by the authors of Veterans Affairs, published earlier this year, found that levels of primary organ damage range from 2% to 22% in studies of COVID-19 patients after leaving the hospital. .
An ongoing survey released through the CDC, in collaboration with the U. S. Census Bureau. The U. S. Food and Drug Administration estimated in November that about 5. 4 percent of adults report experiencing limitations in what they can do due to prolonged COVID.
However, counting the true prevalence of COVID remains elusive for scientists.
According to officials, many other people may not even know they had a COVID infection before they developed symptoms, or they could have trouble determining if they have recovered from their prolonged COVID symptoms.
Another NCHS assignment conducted in-depth “cognitive interviews” with COVID-19 survivors, assessing how they respond to survey questions about symptoms.
“Another follow-up visit we did was, ‘Are you still experiencing any of those symptoms now?’One respondent responded, “I don’t know,” Meredith Massey, an NCHS scientist concerned about the interviews, said at the agency’s October meeting. .
“This respondent explained, ‘I probably have no idea. I don’t know if my taste has completely returned because the reminiscence of what my taste is no longer the same,” Massey added.