People with long covid see their symptoms decrease after two years, a study has found. Fatigue, cough, shortness of breath, fever, loss of taste or smell, depression… Several manifestations of long Covid continue three months after infection.
The persistence of covid-related disorders will no longer be a problem for 90% of people suffering from long covid. Their symptoms improve slowly after two years, indicates a study carried out by Dr. Viet-Thi Tran, epidemiologist (Paris Cité University / AP-HP), with 2,197 patients.
According to the study, about 90% of people with long Covid still report symptoms a year after their initial infection.
The study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases indicates that there are 3 trajectories in patients, the first in 91% of people. There is a slow improvement in their symptoms with a reduction of about 25% in the number of symptoms reported in the 2 years after their appearance.
The second affects approximately 5% of patients. A rapid improvement of their symptoms is noted with a complete remission after two years. This category particularly concerns young patients with no history of functional disease such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, etc. These patients more frequently presented with neck, back and lumbar pain and digestive symptoms during their acute illness.
The third category concerns 4% of patients with significant and persistent symptoms and concerns older cases, smokers and having a history of autoimmune disease. They more frequently presented symptoms such as tachycardia, bradycardia, palpitations, arrhythmias, hot flushes, sweating and intolerance to cold and heat, during their acute illness.
These results will make it possible to better inform patients of the evolution of their long Covid and to better estimate the needs of the health system to meet the challenge of the long Covid, welcomes the AP-HP.
The researchers explain that long Covid is not considered a single “disease” but rather a complex syndrome with heterogeneous symptoms.