Lancet study states that half of hospitalized Kovid patients continue to have symptoms after a year

A man carries a child, both wearing a protective mask and raincoat, inside Hankou railway station in Wuhan, China. Representative Image | bloomberg

Form of words:

New Delhi: A study published in the Journal of Health found that nearly half of people who were hospitalized with Covid had at least one persistent symptom for 12 months. the Lancet Magazine Friday.

The study showed that shortness of breath and lung impairment lasted the longest – one in three people experienced them, especially if they were suffering from severe COVID-19.

NS Study However, based on 1,276 patients from Wuhan, China, it was found that “most symptoms” of Covid in hospitalized patients resolve within 12 months. The study showed that hospitalized Covid survivors were less healthy than those who were not infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, irrespective of their age, gender and pre-existing conditions.

Bin Cao, a researcher at the National Center for Respiratory Medicine at the Sino-Japan Friendship Hospital in China, said, “While most made a good recovery, some patients continued to have health problems, especially those who had a serious illness during their hospital stay. was sick.” in a statement.

“Our findings suggest that some patients will take more than a year to recover, and this should be taken into account when planning the delivery of health services after the pandemic,” he said.


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procedure followed

The same team had previously reported the findings of 1,733 hospitalized Covid survivors six months after infection. that Study found that nearly three-quarters of patients had persistent health problems.

For the new investigation, 1,276 of those 1,733 were followed for a further 12 months for long-term health assessment.

Study participants were discharged from hospital between January 7 and May 29 last year. They underwent health check-ups at six and 12 months from the date they first experienced symptoms.

The team found that many symptoms resolved over time, regardless of the severity of the initial infection. The proportion of patients still experiencing at least one symptom after one year fell from 68 percent at six months to 49 percent at 12 months.

Fatigue or muscle weakness was the most common symptom, with about half of the patients experiencing it within six months. This reduced to one in five patients after one year.

About a third of patients experienced shortness of breath at 12 months – more than 30 percent reporting such symptoms at six months

Over the six-month investigation, 353 study participants underwent chest CT scans. About half of them showed lung abnormalities on their scans and were offered a re-scan every 12 months.

Of the 118 patients who completed the scans over 12 months, the proportion of patients with abnormalities decreased significantly across all groups, but it was still high, especially in the most critically ill group, the researchers said.

tracking vulnerabilities

Compared with men, women were 1.4 times more likely to report fatigue or muscle weakness, twice as likely to report anxiety or depression, and nearly three times more likely to have lung impairment after 12 months.

People with COVID who were treated with corticosteroids during the acute phase of their illness were more likely to experience fatigue or muscle weakness after 12 months than those who were not treated with corticosteroids during their illness was 1.5 times.

The researchers said it will be important to follow up on the findings in future research to better understand why some people have symptoms of COVID-19.

The authors underlined that their study focused on a single hospital and therefore patient results may not be applicable for other settings. Additionally, the study included only a small number of patients who were admitted to intensive care (94) and findings concerning the most critically ill patients should be interpreted with caution, he said.

(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)


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