Among these symptoms, according to the study published in the “Lancet” magazine, are “abdominal pain, difficulty and pain in breathing, muscle pain, loss of taste or sense of smell, tingling, discomfort in the throat, hot or cold flashes, heaviness in the arms or legs and fatigue generic too.”
The researchers concluded that: “In 12.7 percent of patients, these symptoms can be attributed to Covid-19,” three to five months following infection.
This study, which was conducted in the Netherlands, thanks to its scope and methodology, is an important addition to better understand the risks of protracted COVID-19, which is the persistence of persistent symptoms following infection with the virus.
Currently, some patients are known to have certain protracted symptoms that cannot be explained solely as psychosomatic disorders, as some physicians initially suggested.
But the extent of its prevalence and most importantly its pathophysiological course are largely unknown.
While the Lancet study did not answer the second question, it does better explain the first prong, first because it included more than 4,000 people with Covid.
The important development is that the responses of these patients were compared with the responses of people who did not have Covid, because it is possible to feel one of the symptoms mentioned without Covid being the cause.
In fact, regarding 9% of those without COVID had any of the symptoms described above. The percentage among those previously infected with Covid increases to 21.4%.
By subtracting the two percentages, the researchers were able to conclude that just over 12% of people who contracted Covid had prolonged symptoms specifically related to the disease.
However, this study is not without flaws, such as not measuring the prevalence of other symptoms associated with prolonged Covid-19, including in particular a case of depression or mental confusion. (free)
