People hospitalized because of COVID-19 still experience at least one of the symptoms even after six months from contracting the virus.
According to research published on Saturday, this presents the need to further investigate the lingering effects of COVID-19.
The study, which the medical journal Lancet published, involved hundreds of patients in Wuhan's Chinese City. It is one of the few studies to trace long-term symptoms of infection of COVID-19.
Specifically, in this new research, the study authors found that "fatigue or muscle weakness" were among the common symptoms, while some also reported difficulties sleeping. This was also mentioned in Healthcare Triage YouTube video in September 2019.
Science Alert reported that according to National Center for Respiratory Medicine's Bin Cao, also the study's senior author, since COVID-19 is such a new illness, "we are just beginning to understand some of its long-term impacts on the health of patients."
Ongoing Care Needed
Professor Cao added, their research underscored the need for ongoing care for patients following discharge from hospital, specifically those who have suffered from severe infections.
Their work, he specified, underscores, too, the essentiality of "conducting follow-up research in larger populations" so they could understand the entire spectrum of the impacts that COVID-19 can have on people.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the virus postures a danger to some people of serious lingering effects, even among young individuals or "otherwise healthy people" who had not been hospitalized.
This new research engaged more than 1,700 COVID-19 patients discharged from Wuhan-based Jinyintan Hospital from January 2019 to May 2019.
Additionally, patients who averagely aged 57 years old were visited between the months of June and September last year.
They answered questions about the symptoms they encountered, as well as their health-related quality of life. The study investigators also conducted physical examinations and laboratory tests.
As a result, the study authors found about 76 percent of patients who took part in the follow-up, more than 1,200 of the over 1,600 respondents said they still suffer from the symptoms.
Reports of Fatigue or Muscle Weakness
About 63 percent of the respondents reported experiencing fatigue or muscle weakness, while 26 percent said they encountered sleep problems.
Furthermore, the research also looked at more than 90 patients whose levels of blood antibody were recorded "at the height of the infection" as part of another test.
When the said patients were tested again six months after their COVID-19 infection, authors said, their "levels of neutralizing antibodies were 52.5 percent."
The researchers added that their finding raises worries about the probability of COVID-19 re-infection. However, they explained, larger samples would be required to clarify the immunity to the virus at it is changing over time.
In an article that the same medical journal also published, Monica Cortinovis, Guiseppe Remuzzi, and Norberto Perico, from Italy's Instituto di Reicerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, said that "there was uncertainty over the lingering health effects" of this global health crisis.
Unfortunately, they also said that adding the latest research was consequently relevant and timely as there are few reports on the clinical scenario of the outcome of the pandemic.
The team explained, longer-term multidisciplinary study currently being conducted would help in improving the understanding and development of treatments to alleviate the long-term effects of COVID-19 "on multiple tissues and organs."
Check out more news and information on COVID-19 on Science Times.
