Preliminary study shows that recovered coronavirus patients are still symptomatic

At least 50% of people tested continue to experience debilitating, respiratory problems

Will COVID-19 symptoms remain in the patient after recovery?

That is what researchers at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem are trying to determine, and preliminary results are not promising.

At least half of the tested coronavirus patients experienced general weakness and respiratory problems weeks or months after their formal recovery. And perhaps the most disturbing finding is that the symptoms persisted regardless of the severity of the disease.

“We have already tested dozens of patients and saw the majority of them still experiencing some discomfort. Most of them are weak. Some of them are short of breath. Some are still coughing,” Professor Gabriel Izbicki, director of the Lal Laboratory at Schale Zedek, told Media Line. “Most do not recover, not as they were before being hospitalized with COVID-19.”

Izbicki emphasized that the study is still in its infancy and is recruiting hundreds of recovered patients to determine the long-term effects of coronaviruses.

Izbicki calls the three-month preliminary results “extremely horrifying” to determine if the symptoms in the majority of patients are still present at three months, and the officially recovered person returns to normal at 6 o’clock. A few months after being discharged from the hospital, who stated that it needed to be investigated.

Israel’s total recovery as of Sunday night was 17,019 of the 23,616 cases since the outbreak began. About 318 people died of this disease in Israel.

Professor Oren Tsimhoni, head of infectious disease at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, doesn’t need any research to confirm that patients continue to show symptoms after a formal recovery from coronavirus. ..

“People with severe corona disease take a long time to return to baseline because of prolonged prostration of debilitation. To be honest, I don’t think everyone will return to baseline.” Tsimhoni told Medialine. “From my personal experience and perspective, this is an impression. That recovery may not be complete in certain patients.”

COVID-19 is a respiratory disorder and Tsimhoni is not particularly surprised that he may be causing long-term lung damage, he said.

Health professionals are reportedly concerned that patients who recover from coronavirus may have pulmonary scars known as pulmonary fibrosis, preliminary results of the Shaare Zedek study confirm. I am. Researchers have not only seen pulmonary fibrosis, but also dyspnea, or dyspnea, obstructive pulmonary disease, and suspected pulmonary hypertension.

Chimohoni said patients with severe weakness are often unaware that the underlying cause is called “oxygen sequestration.”

“It’s not necessarily a shortness of breath complaint, but they complain of weakness, so testing them shows that they are looking for the oxygen separation they have. They suffer from this separation is”

Preliminary results from the Shaare Zedek study show that some patients hospitalized for severe conditions were asymptomatic at 3 months after recovery, while others hospitalized for mild or moderate illness were months after recovery. Shows symptoms and suffers.

“There doesn’t seem to be a correlation between the severity of the illness in the hospital and its long-term effects,” Izbiki said.

Shaare Zedek researchers have called on former coronavirus patients to contact them and participate in the next phase of the study.

“We urge all patients admitted to hospitals and hotels with corona to participate in this study, naturally and for the benefit of the entire medical community and the COVID community,” Izbicki said. Told.

If you are a former Israeli coronavirus patient who would like to participate in the study, please call +972-2-655-5999 to book a lung outpatient clinic at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. There is a special outpatient clinic for research called the Recovery Corona Outpatient Clinic.