The most common symptoms in the weeks and months after having coronavirus have long been known to include loss of smell, fatigue and shortness of breath.Now, researchers from the University of Birmingham have been able to show that people with long Covid often experience an “extremely broad” variety of symptoms, including less well-known side effects such as hair loss, loss of libido and hallucinations.The study was based on the anonymised electronic health records of 2.4 million Brits, including 486,000 who had caught Covid.Dr Shamil Haroon, an associate clinical professor in Public Health at the University of Birmingham, and the senior author of the study, said he hoped the findings would help clinicians.“This research validates what patients have been telling clinicians and policy makers throughout the pandemic,” Dr Haroon said.“That the symptoms of long Covid are extremely broad and cannot be fully accounted for by other factors such as lifestyle risk factors or chronic health conditions.“The symptoms we identified should help clinicians and clinical guideline developers to improve the assessment of patients with long-term effects from Covid-19, and to subsequently consider how this symptom burden can be best managed.”People who tested positive for the virus reported 62 symptoms much more frequently 12 weeks after initial infection than those who had not contracted the virus, the study found.It’s estimated around two million people in the UK have long Covid, but scientists are still trying to understand how the disease causes the lasting symptoms.“This study is instrumental in creating and adding further value to understanding the complexity and pathology of long Covid,” patient partner and co-author of the study Jennifer Camaradou said.“It highlights the degree and diversity of expression of symptoms between different clusters. Patients with pre-existing health conditions will also welcome the additional analysis on risk factors.”Around 90 specialist long Covid clinics have been set up to tackle what experts fear will be a lasting health legacy of the pandemic.As well as identifying a wider set of symptoms, researchers also found key groups and behaviours which put people at increased risk of developing long Covid.The study suggested that women, younger people and those from a black, mixed or other ethnic group were at greater risk of long Covid.People from poorer backgrounds, smokers and people who were overweight or obese were also linked with reporting persistent symptoms.Researchers investigating the illness in Australia say five per cent of people who get Covid-19 could develop the condition.That means of the nine million Australians who’ve had the virus since the start of the pandemic, more than 450,000 would develop long Covid, adding a further strain to the health system.`NWK Long Covidadellatips
Powered by WPeMatico
