Covid-19: Only one in four hospitalized patients fully recovered after a year

Posted24 avril 2022, 09:31

A British study analyzed data from more than 2,000 adult patients to deliver its conclusions.

Patients wearing face masks rest in a makeshift treatment area outside a hospital following the coronavirus outbreak in Hong Kong, China March 2, 2022.

REUTERS

Only around one in four patients hospitalized for Covid-19 had fully recovered following a year, a British study showed on Sunday which specifies that being a woman or obese increases the risk of maintaining health problems.

This study, presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Lisbon and published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, used adult patient data from 39 UK National Health Service (NHS) hospitals between March 7, 2020 and April 18, 2021.

Blood samples

Recovery was assessed using measures of different patient test results five months and one year following discharge from hospital. In particular, the researchers took blood samples from the participants during the five-month visit to analyze the presence of various inflammatory proteins. Some 2,320 patients were examined five months following their discharge and 33% of them were examined one year later.

Little change following 5 months

The study found that the proportion of adults who had fully recovered did not change significantly between five months and a year following discharge from hospital: it was 25.5% for patients examined five months following and 28.9% for those who still had it a year later. Being female, being obese and having been on a ventilator in hospital are all associated with a lower likelihood of feeling fully recovered at one year, the study also points out. Some of the most common symptoms of long Covid include fatigue, muscle aches, physical sluggishness, lack of sleep and shortness of breath.

(AFP)