After hospitalization for Covid-19, at least one in three patients sees their health permanently affected, with damage to various organs and psychological problems, shows a study published in the journal
Nature Medicine on
Monday March 22.
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This article, which summarizes various research studies recently published on the subject, points to exhaustion, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as the most common symptoms in patients. with "
long Covid
".
The available data, the researchers say, paint an underestimated public health emergency, and governments should pay more attention to it and think about ways to deal with it.
“
Given the millions of people infected with Sars-CoV-2 around the world, the long-term burden on physical, cognitive and mental health remains in front of us.
We are probably only detecting the tip of the iceberg,
”Kartik Sehgal, a medical oncologist and professor at Harvard School of Medicine (Boston), told AFP.
Covid-19 mainly attacks the lungs of patients, sometimes with breathing difficulties that persist in the long term.
But studies have shown that the virus also attacks other organs, causing complications ranging from cardiovascular problems to chronic inflammation.
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The article analyzed nine studies from Europe, the United States and China that followed patients for the long term.
An Italian study concludes that out of 143 patients, nearly 90% present at least one symptom, and more than half, several, two months after their discharge from the hospital.
The most common symptoms are severe fatigue (53.1%), shortness of breath (43.4%), pain in the joints (27.3%) or in the chest (21.7%).
According to three studies conducted in France, the United Kingdom and China, 25% to 30% of patients report sleep disorders several weeks after recovering from the acute phase of Covid.
About 20% mention hair loss, according to several articles.
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The results in terms of mental health are just as worrying: out of 402 Italian patients, one month after discharge from hospital, 56% had been diagnosed with at least one psychiatric problem (post-traumatic stress disorder for around 30% of them, depression, anxiety ...).
“
It is very important not to forget the effects on mental health of the long Covid when taking care of the physical symptoms, because we can easily miss it
,” observes Kartik Sehgal.
For the authors, their study shows that preventing deaths from Covid-19 is not a sufficient result in terms of health, that there is a need to deepen research on the “
long Covid
” and to increase consultations for manage these disabling symptoms.
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"I have the impression of having aged thirty years in a few months": the "covid-long", a severe form of Covid-19 still unknown