Less than one in three people who were hospitalized with Covid-19 fully recovered a year after succumbing to the infection.
This is the shocking finding of a study on the impact of the long Covid in the UK. A team of scientists and doctors from the University of Leicester also found that women had a lower rate of recovery than men after hospitalization, while obesity is also likely to hamper a person’s prospects for improving health.
Symptoms reported by patients a year after their initial infection include fatigue, muscle aches, poor sleep and shortness of breath.
“Given that more than 750,000 people have been hospitalized in the UK with Covid-19 in the last two years, our study shows that the legacy of the disease will be huge,” said Rachel Evans, one of the participants. in the study. authors.
The team stressed that their results show that there is now an urgent need to develop ways to deal with long-term Covid. “Without effective treatment, long-term Covid can become a common long-term condition,” said Professor Chris Breitling, another author.
The study, which will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon on Sunday, includes an analysis of more than 2,000 people from 39 NHS hospitals admitted after Covid-19 infection. After five months, follow-up assessments of their health were made and then again after one year.
“We found that only 25% of people who were hospitalized with Covid-19 fully recovered five months after being discharged, a figure that has risen only slightly – to 29% – in one year,” he said. Evans. “This was a very limited recovery rate in terms of mental health improvements, organ damage and quality of life. It was amazing. “
Being a woman, being obese and having mechanical ventilation while in the hospital are associated with even lower levels of recovery. “If you’re a man, you’re more likely to be hospitalized if you get Covid-19, but you have [higher] a chance to feel better when you go out, ”Evans added. “We found that women and obesity are major risk factors for non-recovery after one year.”
A critical factor in these poor rates of recovery was the lack of treatments that exist for long-term Covid, added Professor Louise Wayne, who is also involved in the study. “There are no specific therapeutic agents for long-term Covid and our data underscore the urgent need for effective interventions.
Researchers also found that many of those who reported injury after hospitalization suffered from persistent inflammation. “This suggests that these groups may be responding to anti-inflammatory strategies,” Wayne added.
The widespread impact of Covid-19 on UK health was highlighted last week when the National Statistics Office released data suggesting that more than seven out of 10 people in England are already infected with the disease since the pandemic began. This estimate, based on a sample of more than 500,000 individuals, shows that 71% of the population in England caught Covid between 27 April 2020 and 11 February 2022.
However, this figure is likely to be underestimated, given the impact of the latest wave of Omicron infections, which peaked in February. “The number of those infected is growing rapidly when the data stopped. The bottom line is that most people in the UK have had Covid-19, “said Professor James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute at Oxford University.
The ONS also revealed that Covid cases are declining across the country, indicating that the latest wave of the disease has peaked. About 3.8 million people were estimated to be infected last week, up from a peak of 4.9 million a month ago, when the number of cases reached its highest level since the start of the pandemic.
Add Comment