Long COVID
Long COVID, also known as long-haul COVID or chronic COVID syndrome,[1] refers to the long-term symptoms of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Not everyone who has the disease will get long COVID.
About
Some people feel better in a few days or weeks, and most people with long COVID will make a full recovery within 12 weeks.[2]
The chance of having long-term symptoms is not linked to how ill someone is when they first get the disease (COVID-19). It can happen to anyone.[2] In 2023 about 2.2 million people in the United Kingdom – some 3.4% of the population were thought to have Long Covid. The symptoms are similar to chronic fatigue syndrome.[3]
List of symptoms
Symptoms reported by people with long COVID include:[4][5][6][7][8][9]
- Extreme fatigue
- Long lasting cough
- Muscle weakness
- Low grade fever
- Inability to concentrate (brain fog)
- Memory lapses
- Changes in mood, sometimes accompanied by depression and other mental health problems
- Sleep difficulties
- Headaches
- Joint pain
- Needle pains in arms and legs
- Diarrhoea and bouts of vomiting
- Loss of taste and smell
- Sore throat and difficulties swallowing
- New onset of diabetes and hypertension
- Heartburn (gastroesophageal reflux disease)
- Skin rash
- Shortness of breath
- Chest pains
- Palpitations
- Kidney problems (acute kidney injury, and chronic kidney disease)
- Changes in oral health (teeth, saliva, gums)
- Anosmia (lack of sense of smell)[10]
- Parosmia (changed smells)[10]
- Tinnitus
- Blood clotting (deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism)
Long COVID Media
Many symptoms have similar severity in long COVID and ME/CFS
A scientific review identified over 50 apparent long-term effects – including those of 'long COVID' – along with their estimated prevalence and estimated that 80% of included patients had at least one overall effect beyond two weeks.
Possible causes of long COVID
Long COVID's prevalence varies by age and gender
References
- ↑ Baig AM (October 2020). "Chronic COVID Syndrome: Need for an appropriate medical terminology for Long-COVID and COVID Long-Haulers". Journal of Medical Virology. 93 (5): 2555–2556. doi:10.1002/jmv.26624. PMID 33095459.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Long-term effects of coronavirus (long COVID)". nhs.uk. National Health Service. 7 January 2021. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
- ↑ Carter, Rachel (2023-01-02). "2022 in review: Will long Covid help us understand the unexplainable?". Pulse Today. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- ↑ "COVID-19 (coronavirus): Long-term effects". Mayo Clinic. 18 August 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
- ↑ "What are the long-term health risks following COVID-19?". NewsGP. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP). 24 June 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
- ↑ Yelin D, Wirtheim E, Vetter P, Kalil AC, Bruchfeld J, Runold M, et al. (October 2020). "Long-term consequences of COVID-19: research needs". The Lancet. Infectious Diseases. 20 (10): 1115–1117. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30701-5. PMC 7462626. PMID 32888409.
- ↑ "Chinese study finds most patients show signs of 'long Covid' six months on" (in en). South China Morning Post. 10 January 2021. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3117141/coronavirus-chinese-study-finds-most-patients-still-show-signs. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ↑ Yan, W. Their Teeth Fell Out. Was It Another Covid-19 Consequence? The New York Times (2020). https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/health/covid-teeth-falling-out.html
- ↑ Al-Aly, Ziyad; Xie, Yan; Bowe, Benjamin (22 April 2021). "High-dimensional characterization of post-acute sequalae of COVID-19". Nature. 594 (7862): 259–264. Bibcode:2021Natur.594..259A. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03553-9. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 33887749.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Brewer, Kirstie (28 January 2021). "Parosmia: 'Since I had Covid, food makes me want to vomit'". BBC News. Retrieved 29 January 2021.