New gives some hope to the many Americans living with prolonged COVID.
People with mild cases see most of their symptoms disappear within a year, according to a large-scale study conducted in Israel and published by the British Medical Journal. But some symptoms, such as loss of taste or smell, may persist longer.
The effects are consistent with observations from COVID experts in the United States.
“Many of those patients will naturally get better over time,” Dr. Ben Abramoff, director of Penn Medicine’s Post-Covid Assessment and Recovery Clinic, told NBC News. “One of the things we tell our patients is that the most productive cure is time. “
Scientists have been searching for answers about prolonged COVID since the early months of the pandemic. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and PreventionThe U. S. Food and Drug Administration estimates that nearly one in five American adults who have had COVID-19 have long-term COVID. The firm defines the condition as symptoms that persist for at least 4 weeks after an infection.
The list of symptoms related to prolonged COVID is long, from shortness of breath, fatigue and persistent coughing to neurological disorders such as mental confusion, depression, and changes in smell or taste. Long-term COVID, however, some studies identify people with severe COVID-19 illnesses or pre-existing physical conditions, as well as other unvaccinated people.
The most recent study found that the longest non-unusual COVID symptoms reported two months after infection were loss of taste and smell, shortness of breath, cognitive problems, fatigue, and upcoming strep throat infections. Other symptoms tended to spread later: hair loss, chest pain, cough, muscle aches, and breathing problems.
The researchers found that vaccinated people who experience advanced infection were less likely to develop breathing difficulties than unvaccinated people, but were at risk for other long-term COVID symptoms. People aged 41 to 60 developed more challenges than other age groups; Although shortness of breath is a persistent problem in other people over the age of 60.
The youth in the hospital had fewer prolonged COVID symptoms than the adults.
“This is reassuring of the medical records of a giant population,” Michael Absoud, an honorary professor in the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health at King’s College London, told STAT. “This confirms that in children, among the small proportion who have prolonged persistent symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection, the vast majority show very smart recovery. “
The study analyzed the medical records of nearly 2 million more people who were tested for COVID-19 in Israel before October 2021. The researchers compared the records of nearly 300,000 more people who tested positive with similar patients who tested negative. The patients included in the study all had mild COVID-19 infections, which were explained to require a doctor’s visit but not hospitalization.
Although the study came with prolonged cases of COVID caused by the omicron variant, doctors reported that those patients also had persistent symptoms.
Abramoff and other longtime COVID experts suggested caution when interpreting the study, as it relied only on medical records and not feedback from patients themselves. Doctors’ notes may not include all symptoms and it is difficult to assess the severity of symptoms from those from notes alone, they said.
Although symptoms may present within a year, this does not mean that they have completely resolved. Some patients have had prolonged COVID for two years or more. Other studies have suggested that mental confusion and other neuropsychiatric disorders may persist for up to two years.
Penn Medicine and other physical care systems in the Philadelphia domain have opened post-COVID recovery clinics. Current treatment focuses on identifying achievable, symptom-based recovery goals. Patients receive physical or occupational therapy, intellectual fitness counseling, and speech therapy.
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