Long-lasting effects of Covid-19, what is known thus far?

Long-lasting Covid-19 symptoms, also known as “long Covid”, could be as a result of injury to the body during infection, including damage to the lungs, heart and brain, research suggests.

Although no definitive link between the severity of Covid-19 illness and the development of lasting symptoms has been found yet, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) continues to study reported long-lasting effects of Covid-19.

Dr Murray Dryden, of the NICD, said they are currently looking at Covid-19 patients who were hospitalised to try see if there were any associations between initial infection and the long-term complications thereafter.

This was to better understand the reason why people continue to experience symptoms.

Dryden said patients who were admitted to hospital with moderate to severe diseases, as well as those who experienced mild to asymptomatic diseases, were thought to be at risk of long Covid-19 effects.

“Due to the novelty of the condition, there is still much to be understood.

“There is some research underway to better understand who is at risk for Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), why does it develop and how it develops,” Dryden said.

“PASC is thought to occur as a result of the injury to the body during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, including damage to the lungs, heart and brain.”

Dryden said out of 14 studies, with a follow-up range of one to seven months, persistent symptoms after Covid-19 recovery were found to range from fatigue, cognitive impairments (confusion, often memory loss) and difficulty in breathing among many others.

“Global literature has found that symptoms may persist as long as six to eight months although this time may be much longer as these papers were concluded at this time frame with ongoing follow up expected.”

An early British Medical Journal has suggested that approximately 10% of those who get infected with Covid-19 were at risk of developing PASC (long Covid-19).

“Ongoing clinical research is primarily focused on patients who required some medical intervention, including hospitalisation. As such, the rates have been found to be considerably higher in patients who experienced moderate to severe disease,” Dryden said.

“To date, review of the currently available literature shows that the prevalence of at least one persistent symptom between follow-up from one to seven months after initial symptom onset in hospitalised patients is about 28-93% with some decline thereafter.

“However, until there is sufficient medical research looking at both hospitalised and non-hospitalised patients, it is not possible to identify the true prevalence of PASC in the population.”

Dryden said preliminary risk factors associated with the development of long Covid-19 included whether the patient was female, younger than 50 years, the severity of disease at onset and if the patient had underlying depression and/or anxiety.

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