Long COVID risk could become common syndrome

Treatment for COVID-19 patients at a hospital in Hartford, Connecticut (USA). (Photo: AFP/VNA)

A UK study found that fewer than one in four people hospitalized with COVID-19 had fully recovered a year later, with the team warning that long COVID could become a common condition.

The study was published in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine on April 24.

Researchers analyzed the medical records of more than 2,300 people with COVID-19 who were discharged from 39 hospitals in the UK between March 2020 and April 2021, then assessed the recovery of 807 of these patients from five months to a year later.

Results showed that only 26% of these had fully recovered after 5 months, and this rate increased to 28.9% after 1 year.

The study found significant reductions in symptom recovery, mental health, exercise capacity, organ function and quality of life in these patients, said Rachel Evans, lead author of the study at the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

The team found that women were 33% less likely to fully recover from COVID-19 than men. Patients who were obese were only 50% less likely to fully recover, while those who had been on a ventilator had a 58% lower chance of full recovery.

The most common symptoms of long COVID are fatigue, muscle pain, insomnia, physical sluggishness and shortness of breath. Without effective treatment, long COVID could become a new, long-term, common syndrome, said lead researcher Christopher Brightling of the University of Leicester.

According to VNA