Long Covid: What We Know

Who is affected by this?

(CTN News) – It is generally understood that Long covid is characterized by symptoms that persist or recur more than four weeks after the infection has occurred. In case of prolonged complaints lasting at least two months and over three months, WHO should be notified.

The number of people who are currently infected with Long Covid is still inaccurate – many numbers are based on older virus variants. Because the frequency of long-term consequences varies by virus variant. Data from 54 studies from 2020 and 2021 was evaluated by a Seattle-based research team.

Six percent of the patients still had symptoms three months after the infection, according to this study. Approximately 1 percent of the population fell after a year.

Long Covid is estimated to affect between 500,000 and a million people in Germany, according to Jördis Fromm hold, who established the first “Institute Long Covid” in Germany. A lower number of Long Covid cases occur in the Omicron variant compared to the Delta variant.

A disease’s severity also impacts its likelihood of causing Long Covid. At Omikron, the risk of Long Covid is decreasing, but it is still affecting a large number of people, says Frommhold.

Who is affected by this?

According to a recently published study conducted at Dresden University Hospital, Long Covid occurs in people of all ages. When women contract Covid-19, they are at a higher risk of developing Long Covid.

A US study from October 2022 found that 63 percent of those suffering from Long Covid were women. A woman aged 20 or older is twice as likely as a man to develop Long Covid.

Long-term conditions like long-term disease can also be caused by obesity, diabetes, asthma, and various autoimmune conditions.

Can you describe the clinical picture?

The diagnosis is still complicated by the absence of a uniform clinical picture. As part of the Clinical Picture Long Covid, more than 200 symptoms can now be grouped, which can appear up to several weeks after Corona disease.

In addition to fatigue, pain, loss of taste, shortness of breath, exhaustion, and limited resilience (fatigue), problems with concentration and memory also occur.

A median of nine months passed before Long Term Corona symptoms stopped in people hospitalized due to Corona infection, while only four months passed for people who weren’t hospitalized. Many showed symptom reductions after a year, however.

Do you know how to protect yourself?

Vaccination against Covid-19 not only protects against a severe course, but also reduces, according to a recent study, the risk of suffering subsequent symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, muscle weakness and pain, shortness of breath, dizziness and changes in smell.

The findings of an Israeli study observed that people who were doubly vaccinated and contracted Covid-19 as a result of the vaccine had a significantly lower incidence of long-term covid symptoms than people who were not vaccinated. This study was conducted before the outbreak of Omicron.

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