Two-Thirds of Severe COVID Survivors Face Health Issues Months Later
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, April 11, 2024 -- People who survive a long and harrowing bout of COVID-19 do not emerge unscathed from their illness, a new study warns.
Two-thirds of severe COVID patients still have physical, psychiatric and thinking problems one year after their illness, researchers report.
The report highlights the ongoing dilemma faced by “millions of survivors of the most severe and prolonged COVID illness globally,” said lead researcher Dr. Anil Makam, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
For the report, researchers studied 156 people who suffered COVID infections so severe they needed to be transferred to long-term acute care hospitals. Their average age was 65, and most said they’d been healthy prior to COVID.
Patients were overwhelmingly grateful to have survived, and often described their survival as a “miracle,” researchers said.
But their recovery has taken a lot longer than expected, they added.
Most of these patients required mechanical ventilation to survive COVID, and these hospitals specialize in weaning them off ventilators and providing rehabilitation, researchers said.
Among the participants, 64% reported having persistent health problems a year after their illness, including physical (57%), breathing (49%), psychiatric (24%) and cognitive (15%) symptoms.
Nearly half (47%) had more than one type of problem, and one in five (19%) still needed supplemental oxygen, results show.
These patients also complained of health problems caused by their long hospital stays, including painful bedsores and nerve damage that limited the use of their arms or legs.
“Many of the participants we interviewed were most bothered by these complications, so preventing these from happening in the first place is key to recovery,” Makam said.
Although four in five (79%) said they hadn’t recovered their full health, nearly all (99%) had returned home and three in five (60%) had returned to work, results show.
These post-COVID health problems are not unique, however.
“The long-lasting impairments we observed are common to survivors of any prolonged critical illness, and not specific to COVID, and are best addressed through multidisciplinary rehabilitation,” Makam said.
The new study was published April 10 in the journal Critical Care Medicine.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted April 2024
Further Support and Information on COVID-19
Read this next
Extended Course of Paxlovid Adds No Benefit for Those With Long COVID
FRIDAY, June 7, 2024 -- An extended course of the antiviral drug Paxlovid won’t ease a person’s Long COVID symptoms, a new study finds. People who took Paxlovid for...
FDA Panel OKs New COVID Vaccine for Fall
THURSDAY, June 6, 2024 -- A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Wednesday recommended updating the formula for COVID vaccines ahead of a fall campaign that will...
Long COVID's Toll Outlined in New Report
THURSDAY, June 6, 2024 -- Long COVID continues to plague millions of Americans as the health costs of the pandemic linger four years later, a new report warns. In a hefty...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.
