By: Aparajita Patel
According to a recent study published in The Lancet Journal, nearly half of COVID patients had at least one long-term symptom, such as shortness of breath or exhaustion, that lasted up to a year.
Shortness of breath and lung limitations lasted the longest, according to the study, with one in every three participants suffering them. The study looked at 1,276 patients in Wuhan, China, and discovered that “most of the symptoms” of Covid hospitalized patients go away after a year. Hospitalized covid survivors were shown to be less healthy than those who had not been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In a statement, researcher Bin Cao of China’s National Center for Respiratory Medicine said, “While most patients had made a decent recovery, health difficulties persisted in certain patients, notably those who had been critically ill throughout their hospital stay.”
“Our findings show that some patients’ recovery will take longer than a year,” he continued, “and this should be taken into account.”
Six months following the outbreak, the same team of researchers published findings from 1,733 hospitalized survivors. Three-quarters of the participants in this study reported ongoing health issues.
Regardless of the severity of the illness, the majority of the symptoms disappeared over time, according to the researchers. After a year, the proportion of patients still suffering at least one symptom dropped from 68% at six months to 49% at a year.
Muscle weakness was another prevalent symptom, with about half of the patients reporting it after six months. This number was lowered to one out of every five patients.
At 12 months, one-third of patients reported shortness of breath, which was higher than the 30% who reported such symptoms at six months.
Three hundred and fifty-three individuals had a CT scan after six months. The scan revealed that half of them had lung abnormalities, and they were advised to have another scan in 12 months. The number of people with anomalies dropped in 118 patients who completed the scan after 12 months but was remained significant in some severely ill people.
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