One in four patients admitted to Covid recovered completely after one year, the Lancet study suggests

Major studies suggest that only one in four patients admitted with Covid recovered completely after one year.

A study of more than 2,000 patients in the United Kingdom found that women, obese people, and ventilator users were most likely to suffer from long Covids.

Scientists said there was an “urgent need” for the NHS to support a rapidly growing group of patients who do not have specific treatments currently available.

New studies suggest that poor recovery from Covid is associated with inflammation of important proteins, and experts say they need to be targeted to find effective treatments.

Official figures show that more than 830,000 patients have been hospitalized in Covid in the UK since the pandemic began.

Published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine and published at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, the study followed patients treated at 39 NHS hospitals in the United Kingdom.

A total of 2,320 participants discharged between March 7, 2020 and April 18, 2021 were evaluated five months after discharge. Of them, 807 participants were still being tracked in 12 months.

Overall, only 29% were fully recovered, women were 32% less likely to be fully recovered, and obese women were half as likely to reach this point. Studies have shown that people who were on mechanical breathing during hospitalization were 58% less likely to recover completely.

Researchers have found similar trends in 5 months when only 26% have fully recovered, suggesting that progress in the first few months after admission is important.

In almost half of the cases, the severity of symptoms after 5 months was classified as severe or very severe.

Debilitating symptoms

The most common ongoing long Covid symptoms were fatigue, muscle aches, slowing down, lack of sleep, and shortness of breath. The average age of those followed for 12 months was 59 years, with one in three women and more than a quarter using ventilators.

Recovery was assessed 5 months and 1 year after discharge using patient-reported outcome indicators, physical fitness, and organ function.

Researchers also took blood samples of participants during a five-month visit to analyze the presence of various inflammatory proteins.

Elevated levels of the inflammatory biomarker C-reactive protein were associated with the more severe and longer Covid, and the inflammatory biomarker interleukin-6 (IL-6) was also found to be elevated. rice field.

People who were obese and impaired athletic performance were also more likely to suffer severely.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, about 1.7 million people are currently experiencing long covids. It is defined as a symptom that lasts more than 4 weeks after a suspected infection.

Urgent need for support

The new research was led by Professor Christopher Brightling, Dr. Rachel Evans, and Professor Louise Wain of the University of Leicester’s National Institute of Health, Lester Biomedical Research Center.

Dr. Evans said the limited recovery between 5 months and 1 year after admission was “impressive” and the majority suffered from symptoms such as organ damage, loss of athletic performance, and poor mental health. Stated.

Being obese or female turned out to be “a major risk factor for not recovering in a year,” she said, and such groups require stronger interventions such as supervised rehabilitation. Suggested that it might be.

Professor Wayne said: “There is no specific treatment for long Covids, and our data emphasize the urgent need for effective interventions, especially very severe and moderate systemic with cognitive impairment clusters. Our findings on the persistence of sexual inflammation suggest that these groups may respond to anti-inflammatory strategies.

Some patients may also need treatment to manage post-traumatic stress disorders, she said.

Professor Breitling said: ..

“Without effective treatment, long Covids can become a very popular new long-term condition.”