COVID patients have symptoms years after infection

Around half of recovered COVID19 patients report at least one symptom two years after their infection with the disease, a study of nearly 1,200 people led by Chinese researchers has found.

The findings suggest it is important to examine the long-term condition of COVID-19 survivors and provide support and rehabilitation for them. As new vaccines and drugs have been widely deployed and the virus keeps mutating, more efforts should also be devoted to understanding the impact of lingering symptoms, the researchers said.

The study, published online on The Lancet Respiratory Medicine on Thursday, followed COVID-19 survivors longer than most studies that look into long-term effects of the disease, said a research team led by scientists from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

The study involved 1,192 people who were hospitalized for COVID19 and discharged between early January and late May 2020 from a hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province — the hardest-hit region during the initial outbreak in China. Their average age was 57 at discharge.

About 55 percent of them reported at least one lingering symptom two years after infection, down from 68 percent at six months after infection. Commonly reported symptoms include fatigue, insomnia and muscle weakness.

Compared with recovered patients who reported no persistent symptoms, survivors with long

COVID symptoms were also found to have a lower quality of life and poor exercise capacity. They were more likely to experience mental health issues and seek healthcare services more often.

Severely ill COVID-19 patients who had once been put on respiratory support at a hospital also suffered long-term lung impairment after being discharged, the study found.

“COVID-19 survivors had a remarkably lower health status than the general population at two years,” the researchers said. “The study findings indicate there is an urgent need to explore the pathogenesis of long-COVID conditions and develop effective interventions to reduce the risk.”

The study noted that all of the people taking part in the study were infected during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, so whether its findings can be directly or entirely applied to patients infected with new variants remains to be seen.

“Ongoing follow-up of COVID-19 survivors, particularly those with symptoms of long-COVID conditions, is essential to understand the longer course of the illness, as is further exploration of the benefits of rehabilitation programs for recovery,” Cao Bin, vice-president of China-Japan Friendship Hospital and a researcher involved in the study, said in a news release.

“There is a clear need to provide continued support to a significant proportion of people who have had COVID-19 and to understand how vaccines, emerging treatments and variants affect long-term health outcomes,” he added.