Long-COVID is relatively rare, but still poses a threat

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, the virus responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to infect millions of people worldwide and is a chronic symptom. It has been reported that complaints are increasing. I will recover from this illness.

Ultimately, these symptoms were recognized as “long covid”, an acute sequela of COVID-19 (PASC), or a condition known as post-covid condition.New research under review in the journal Science report Current, Research Square * Preprint servers suggest that these complaints may not be extremely common among COVID-19 patients compared to the general public.

study: Prolonged complaints, or general complaints? Image Credit: Kateryna Onyshchuk / Shutterstock.com

Preface

PASC causes a variety of organ-related symptoms and is associated with varying severity. Little is known about this condition, its prevalence, risk factors, and prognosis.

Shortness of breath, cough, brain fog, loss of concentration and malaise are the main complaints of PASC. Neurological symptoms also include long-term changes in the sense of smell and taste. Previous studies published in several different countries have found that some of these symptoms are more common in individuals who have recovered from COVID-19.

In most patients with mild COVID-19, the overlap between various complaints often associated with PASC and their onset over time has been discussed. Identifying the risk of PASC in this group, as the majority of COVID-19 patients experience mild symptoms and do not require hospitalization, especially because mild breakthrough infections are common in vaccinated individuals. The need to do is clear.

About research

Current research aims to understand whether PASC actually exists and how it changes over time. In addition, researchers at the Norwegian Institute for Public Health and Lund University investigated how similar symptoms progress over time in patients other than COVID-19.

Neurological, lung, and general complaints were the main focus of this study as they are the most common features reported by PASC patients.

The data used in the current study were taken from the Norwegian Emergency Response Register for COVID-19 testing in Norway from the onset of a pandemic and excluded inpatients. It also provided vaccination and demographic data.

All participants were 18-70 years old and were categorized as having been tested for COVID-19 between August 1, 2020 and August 1, 2021. COVID-19, if tested, will be tested until the beginning of the test week.

This allows for test-related complaints and consultations that do not form part of pre-test complaints or other tests ordered prior to expert consultation.

Patients were categorized into COVID-19 positive, negative, and untested patients.

Survey results

More than 76,000 people tested positive for COVID-19, but more than 1.1 million were negative and more than 1 million were not tested. Of those who tested positive for COVID-19, 0.05% died and 0.2% moved from the area. Of the negative people, 0.06% died and 0.1% emigrated to Norway.

Adjusted prevalence (percentage and percentage) for various post-covid complaints at baseline, 2, 4, and 6 months follow-up of individuals tested negative and positive for SARS-CoV-2 95% confidence interval). Missing circles, triangles, or squares indicate no observations of the group in question. It was not possible to plot the prevalence of respiratory + neurology + general complaints due to very few observations.

Individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 were more likely to be younger and healthier than the other two groups and were often unvaccinated. These individuals also received more medical consultations on common illnesses between 2017 and 2019. However, this increased outpatient rate was not reflected when neurological, lung and general complaints were assessed.

The prevalence of single complaints increased over the two months from baseline. However, when lungs and general complaints occurred together, their prevalence decreased between 2 and 6 months. Neurological complaints were lower at baseline and increased at a slower rate.

Lung and general complaints were more common in individuals who recovered from COVID-19 than in the other two groups, especially two months after the initial diagnosis. This difference decreased between 4 and 6 months. Differences between groups showed the least neurological complaints and showed complete or slight differences over time up to 6 months from the date of study.

At this last point, 50-250 per 10,000 COVID-19 patients could be diagnosed with lung or general complaints, compared to those who were not diagnosed with COVID-19. The difference in neurological complaints was only 5-10 per 10,000. When excluding untested people, the difference in direct comparisons was small.

In the COVID-19 group, there were many complaints overall, but duplicate complaints were rare.

Implication

The findings show that the prevalence of PASC-like complaints after recovery from COVID-19 is slightly increased from 5-250 per 10,000 compared to the negative or untested population. I am. Most of these complaints occurred alone, not as a syndrome, but with either breathing, malaise, or neurological symptoms.

Therefore, complaints that are often considered typical post-covid complaints can also be naturally prevalent complaints, regardless of the initial illness... “

Even a slight increase in the frequency of such complaints following COVID-19 can be a significant burden on the healthcare system due to the very large size of COVID-19 cases.

Combined with previous studies, study results show that both mild COVID-19 and severe influenza are more likely to cause a slight increase in lung-related symptoms and malaise 6 months after infection in these patients. It may be. Nevertheless, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines PASC as very rare due to its low prevalence.

Further studies based on more sensitive patient reports or clinical data are needed to examine these findings and determine how other mild viral respiratory infections correlate with respect to long-term sequelae. is. The effects of booster vaccination on PASC and risk factors for post-covid complaints have not yet been established.

*Important Notices

Research Square Publish preliminary scientific reports that should not be considered definitive as they are not peer-reviewed, guide clinical practice / health-related behaviors, and should not be treated as established information.