A corona infection lasts a few weeks at most, but health impairments are also possible months later. One in five of the younger convalescents also has long-term problems, according to a study by the US health authority CDC.
According to a US study, people who have been infected with the corona virus are twice as likely to develop a pulmonary embolism or breathing problems later. Further consequential damage is not uncommon after an infection, according to the study by the US health authority CDC. One in five of the 18 to 64-year-olds who had contracted Covid-19 suffered from long-term health problems. In the case of the over 65-year-olds it was even one in four.
This ratio is in line with the results of previous studies, which estimated the number of ex-Covid patients with long-term symptoms, commonly referred to as Long Covid, to be around 20 to 30 percent.
For the new study, the CDC researchers examined a database of medical records for a total of 26 symptoms that could be related to Covid. In the study period from March 2020 to November 2021, the researchers compared the data from a total of 350,000 corona patients with a control group that had not been infected.
“The former Covid-19 patients had a significantly higher risk than the control group of developing diseases that can be attributed to a previous infection,” the researchers write. The most common complaints were respiratory problems and muscle and skeletal pain. The risk for all 26 examined symptoms was increased among those over 65, while the risk of mental illness or problems with blood vessels in the brain remained the same among younger adults.
Both groups were most at increased risk of respiratory symptoms and pulmonary embolism – blood clots that block an artery in the lungs and can be fatal. The researchers point out that their data does not yet account for the recent omicron variant of the coronavirus
