Around one in five adults experience symptoms of Long COVID for more than three months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to a study of 4,708 U.S. adults, with a median recovery time of 20 days, indicating a significant personal and societal burden.
COVID-19 can cause long-lasting symptoms, known as Long COVID, including fatigue, headaches, loss of taste/smell, and discomfort lasting for weeks or months after the initial infection.
Long COVID is more common in women, certain ethnic groups, and those with pre-existing conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and chronic lung disease, but less common in vaccinated individuals and those with the Omicron variant.
Vaccinated individuals and those infected with the Omicron variant tend to recover more quickly from COVID-19 compared to unvaccinated individuals or those infected with earlier variants.
Pre-existing health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes are linked to longer recovery times from COVID-19, while no strong link was found between pre-existing mental health conditions and the risk of Long COVID.
The cause of Long COVID remains unclear, and efforts are ongoing to understand its causes and develop effective treatments, with many unknowns still present.
Sources: timesnownews.com, sciencealert.com, news-medical.net, iflscience.com, and scienceblog.com.
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.
