Long Covid: New study surprises - long-lasting symptoms even after a mild corona course

Created: 03/15/2022 05:18

By: Max Darga

After a corona infection, many of those affected complain about symptoms that last long after the illness: Long Covid or Post-Covid syndrome.

Tübingen – Depending on who you ask, you will get different answers about how bad corona disease really is.

Personal experiences with the corona virus are individual and the presence of risk factors does not always mean that you will inevitably become seriously ill.

However, many people who have been infected with SARS-Cov-2 still have symptoms long after the actual disease is over - even if the course was mild.

Known as Long Covid, this phenomenon is a mystery.

Why do people often not recover from Corona?

What is the extent of the so-called post-Covid syndrome and how does it manifest itself?

What are the risk factors that mean that you still have to struggle with climbing stairs months after the illness?

Researchers at the University of Tübingen also asked themselves these questions.

In one study, they interviewed a large number of people who had been infected with the virus.

Long Covid study provides information on the frequency of long-lasting symptoms

The scientists at the University of Tübingen did some research.

In three German districts, all adults who had a positive PCR test between March and September 2020 were asked to fill out a questionnaire.

In the end, the researchers received 1,907 responses from the 4,632 eligible people.

After that, the questionnaires were analyzed for the clinical characteristics and who was most likely to have Long Covid.

The decisive factor was whether the patients still had symptoms twelve weeks after the infection.

After a final screening, 1459 people remained in the study analysis.

Since a population-based research approach was chosen, those affected who were not in the hospital during the acute phase of their illness could also be interviewed.

87 percent of the study participants belonged to this group.

This made it possible to supplement the previous studies on Long Covid, which were primarily carried out with patients who had severe courses.

The result of the study shows that even with less severe courses, long-lasting symptoms often remain.

Corona infection often results in Long Covid - even with mild courses

The team around institute and study director Prof. Dr.

Stefanie Joos found out that 46 percent of the outpatients treated continue to suffer from symptoms twelve weeks after the infection.

Much more frequently, at 73 percent, patients who were seriously ill and had to be treated in hospital during the acute phase of their infection reported long-term symptoms.

The research group identified tiredness, physical exhaustion, difficulty concentrating as well as loss of taste and smell as the most common symptoms of both groups.

According to the results, the risk factor was highest for women to get Long Covid after a corona infection.

Previous studies on Long Covid yielded different numbers

Since studies have so far shown other so-called prevalences in long covid, the researchers address this alleged point of criticism in the study.

For cohorts of patients who had to be treated in hospital, between 33 and 87 percent were given in other studies and between 2 and 53 percent in studies on patients who did not have to be treated in hospital.

According to the authors, these studies analyzed small and unrepresentative groups or even included people without a positive PCR test.

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Corona variant omicron: This new symptom indicates an infection

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A new sign could indicate a disease.

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The scientists from Tübingen certify their own study that they did not use a control group.

It is therefore not possible to distinguish between specific corona symptoms and symptoms of other causes.

The researchers made it clear that data collection using questionnaires also poses a certain risk of distorting the results - after all, greater awareness of Long Covid has been created since the past studies.

In addition, fewer people who no longer have symptoms take part in survey studies.

It is therefore assumed that the proportion of those affected by Long Covid is lower than recorded in the study.

Long Covid study coordinator surprised by so many reports of 'serious symptoms'

"The fact that some viral infections can lead to persistent symptoms is not new," says study coordinator Dr.

medical

Christian Förster in a press release from the University of Tübingen on the study.

"Nevertheless, we were surprised that so many of those affected reported such serious symptoms after this time."

It is not clear to what extent the findings can be transferred to the disease with the mutants of the coronavirus.

The question of how dangerous the omicron subtype BA.2 is, for example, cannot be read from the study results.