Long Covid is a term to describe the effects of Covid-19 that continue for weeks or months beyond the initial illness. Many people feel better in a few days or weeks and most make a full recovery within 12 weeks but for some, symptoms can last longer.
The chances of having long-term symptoms do not seem to be linked to how ill you are when you first got COVID-19. What’s the latest on Long Covid?
The inaugural cohort of Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 Activity Rehabilitation Program (CARP) for post–COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) were mostly women, younger, had few pre-existing comorbidities, and experienced milder forms of COVID-19, but only a third were able to return to full-time work.
The descriptive study, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, involved 100 CARP participants from June to December 2020 and found the most common ailments to be fatigue (80%), neurologic complaints like headaches (59%), and respiratory complaints like breathlessness (59%).
Other symptoms included cognitive impairment, sleep disturbance, and mental health symptoms. A little over a third of patients (34%) said they had difficulties performing basic daily activities, and only one in three who had been employed had fully returned to unrestricted work by the time they were evaluated.
Contrary to other studies, Mayo Clinic researchers found that the cohort consisted of younger (mean age, 45.4 years) and previously healthier patients, whose main pre-existing comorbidities were respiratory issues like asthma (23%), a history of depression or anxiety (34%), or high blood pressure (19%). More than two-thirds (68%) were women. Three in four did not have to be hospitalized during their initial COVID-19 symptoms. The average time between COVID-19 diagnosis or symptom onset and CARP enrollment was 93.4 days.
The symptoms often resulted in significant negative effects as patients tried to return to normal daily activities, including work. While many patients had fatigue, more than half also reported troubles with thinking, commonly known as ‘brain fog.’
And more than one-third of patients had trouble with basic activities of life. Many could not resume their normal work life for at least several months. Mayo Clinic is conducting intensive research on post-COVID-19 syndrome, in part to better define how the condition presents across different socioeconomic groups and ethnicities. Prolonged symptoms, such as those experienced with the post-COVID-19 syndrome, have been reported in prior epidemics.
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Dr. Melvin Sanicas (@Vaccinologist) is a physician-scientist specializing in vaccines, infectious diseases, and global health.