A study of tens of thousands of people in Scotland found that one in twenty people who had been sick with Covid had not fully recovered from their infections.
In order to better understand the long-term risks of Covid, the authors of the study compared the frequencies of symptoms in people with and without previous Covid diagnoses.
The study found that people with previous Covid infections had more persistent symptoms than people without the infections. Patients with elevated risks of more than 20 other symptoms included the heart, respiratory health, muscle aches, mental health and the sensory system.
Scientists called for more expansive care options for Covid patients in the United States and elsewhere after the findings.
The study didn't find a higher risk of long-term problems in people with coronaviruses. In a small group of people who had been given at least one dose of Covid vaccine before their infections, it was found that the vaccine reduced the risk of long Covid symptoms.
The study found that people with Covid cases were more likely to have long-term problems.
Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly is the Chief of Research at the V.A. St. Louis Health Care System.
According to Dr. Al-Aly, long Covid is a multi system disorder, one that resides not only in the brain, but in the heart as well.
The findings reinforced the importance of long Covid patients being offered support that extends beyond health care and addresses needs related to jobs, education, poverty and disability.
Covid can have an impact on your life in many different ways. The approach to supporting people needs to be more than one thing. Within the health care sector is not the answer.
A constellation of problems can plague patients for months or longer after an illness. As the number of Covid cases exploded and health systems learned to better manage the initial stages of an infections, researchers have given more attention to understanding the daunting aftereffects.
Estimates from the U.S. government show that between 7.7 million and 23 million people in the US could have Covid.
The director general of the World Health Organization stated in an article for The Guardian that the condition is devastating. He called on all countries to take immediate and sustained action.
63,000 people who had never been diagnosed with Covid were tracked by the authors of the study. In six-month intervals, those people were asked about any symptoms they had, as well as any difficulties with daily life.
The researchers tried to overcome a challenge that many other long Covid researchers have faced: how to ascribe less specific symptoms to Covid when they are common in the general population.
The study found that many of the most common Covid symptoms were also reported by people who had never been exposed. The study found that people who had previously had Covid were more likely to reportSymptoms were significantly more common in people who had previously had Covid
Six percent of those with previous Covid cases said they hadn't recovered, and 42 percent said they had only partially recovered.
The trajectory of long Covid symptoms is still being studied by the doctor. The new study gave a small glimpse into that question. About 13 percent of people in the group said that their symptoms had improved over time, while 11 percent said they had deteriorated.
Dr. Al-Aly said that some people do resolve over time, but there are a lot of people who still have symptoms.
Only a small portion of the study participants had beenvaccinated before their infections, and many of them only had one dose.
The vaccine does confer some protection, but it is not an absolute.
Those with pre-existing health problems also did.
It's difficult to determine how long Covid risks have differed among racial and ethnic groups because most study participants are white.
More resources were needed to treat patients with an earlier coronaviruses infection for health systems still working to recover from recent Covid surge.
Dr. Al-Aly said that their systems weren't prepared.
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