2023-12-30 02:08:02
Tests COVID-19 Photo : VCG
Chinese scientists have published the first study on long COVID, three years after the primary infection.
According to the latest study jointly conducted by teams led by Cao Bin of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital and Zhang Dingyu, director of Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, about half of COVID-19 survivors had at least one after-effect symptom three years after the onset of symptoms. .
The most common long-term COVID symptoms were fatigue or muscle weakness and hair loss. The study, published in the Respiratory Medicine issue of The Lancet on December 21, noted that compared to survivors without long COVID, those with long COVID had a higher proportion of reinfection and were more prone to pneumonia after a reinfection.
The study highlighted that most long COVID symptoms three years after onset were mild to moderate, with lung function recovering to levels similar to matched controls.
Survivors with long COVID showed a higher proportion of reinfection and reported new or worsened symptoms three months after Omicron (B.1.1.529) infection, compared to those without long COVID. Reinfection increased the onset of symptoms but did not have a notable impact on reduced daily activity, as mentioned in the study.
Even though COVID-19 survivors’ organ function improved over time, study scientists cautioned that people with severe, long-term COVID symptoms, abnormal organ function, or limited mobility should receive urgent attention in future clinical practice and research.
Before this study, there was no data on the prevalence of long COVID three years after primary infection, nor any evidence on the effects of reinfection in people with long COVID symptoms. Therefore, the scientists conducted the study to investigate the three-year health outcomes of COVID-19 survivors and the impact of Omicron reinfection, as detailed in the published paper.
In this single-center longitudinal cohort study, participants with confirmed COVID-19, discharged from Jinyintan Hospital between January 7 and May 29, 2020, were recruited. Jinyintan Hospital was one of the main frontline hospitals in China against SARS-CoV-2.
Participants underwent three follow-up visits at 6 months (June 16 to September 13, 2020), 1 year (December 16, 2020 to February 7, 2021), and 2 years (November 16, 2021 to January 10, 2022). post-symptom appearance.
At 1-year follow-up, community controls without a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection were recruited from two communities in Wuhan. At the 2-year follow-up, they were matched (1:1) with COVID-19 survivors who underwent pulmonary function testing.
The study conducted a 3-year follow-up, from February 23, 2023 to April 20, 2023, after the Omicron wave of winter 2022. Eligible COVID-19 survivors and matched community controls at the 2-year follow-up were invited to the hospital’s outpatient clinic for face-to-face questionnaires, 6-minute walk test (6MWT), and laboratory tests. A subgroup underwent pulmonary function tests, selected on the basis of Severity of Illness Scale scores during hospitalization.
Survivors with abnormal lung images at 2-year follow-up received further evaluation with high-resolution computed tomography. Participants with and without long COVID at 2 years were identified, and primary outcomes at 3 years follow-up included sequelae symptoms, Omicron infection, lung function, and chest imaging.
Results revealed that among 1,359 COVID-19 survivors who completed 2- and 3-year follow-up, 728 (54%) had at least one after-effect symptom 3 years after symptom onset, before infection by Omicron, mostly light to light. moderate severity.
During the Omicron wave, participants with long COVID at 2 years had a significantly higher proportion of reinfection (573 [76 percent] 753 against 409 [67 percent] of 606 without long COVID) and pneumonia (27 [5 percent] 568 to seven [2 percent] of 403).
Three months after Omicron infection, 126 (62%) of 204 survivors with 2-year long COVID reported new or worsening symptoms, significantly higher than the non-long COVID group (85 [41 percent] out of 205) and community controls (81 [40 percent] of 205). Conversely, no significant differences were found between COVID-19 survivors without long COVID and matched community controls ( 85 [41 percent] 205 to 81 [39 percent] of 206).
Reinfection emerged as a risk factor for dyspnea, anxiety or depression and EuroQol visual analog scale score, but not reduction in daily activity at 3 years. Pulmonary function at 3 years in survivors was similar to that of matched community controls.
At 3 years, irregular lines, traction bronchiectasis, subpleural lines and ground glass opacity were observed, but the lung lesion volume ratio to total lung was only 0.2 to 0, 3 percent.
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