A fifth of asymptomatic COVID patients develop long COVID: study
21 June, 2021
Almost a fifth of COVID patients without symptoms continued to experience conditions regular with long COVID per month after their initial diagnosis, according to a fresh study.
The analysis by non-profit FAIR Health encompassed insurance claims from 1.96 million Americans -- the major population of patients ever studied for long COVID -- from February 2020 to February 2021.
"Even while the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, long-haul Covid persists as a public health issue affecting many Americans," said FAIR Health's president Robin Gelburd.
"The findings inside our new study shed significant light upon this emerging issue for all those who have long-haul COVID, aswell for policy makers, providers and researchers."
"Long COVID" identifies symptoms of the disease that persist more than a month after being diagnosed.
The study discovered that across all ages, the most frequent post viral conditions were to be able of frequency: pain, breathing difficulties, high cholesterol, general discomfort and fatigue, and high blood circulation pressure.
The odds of dying thirty days or more after primarily being identified as having COVID were 46 times higher for patients who were hospitalized with COVID and discharged compared to those that weren't hospitalized.
Overall, 0.5 percent of COVID patients who were hospitalized then discharged died thirty days or even more after their initial diagnosis.
Nineteen percent of asymptomatic COVID patients experienced long COVID symptoms thirty days out from their initial diagnosis; the figure grew to 27.5 percent of COVID patients who were symptomatic but not hospitalized, and 50 percent of these who were hospitalized.
The order of all common long COVID conditions varied by generation -- for example in the pediatric population, intestinal issues replaced high cholesterol as the third most typical.
Most long COVID conditions were associated more with females than males -- however, many, such as for example cardiac inflammation, were more common in males, who accounted for 52 percent of cases against 48 percent for females.
A quarter of all such cases occurred among individuals aged 19-29.
Among the four mental health issues evaluated after 30 days, anxiety was the most frequent, accompanied by depression, adjustment disorders and tic disorder.
The biggest drawback of the brand new study could it be lacks a control group of folks who never got COVID, which would help determine the extent to which COVID caused the conditions instead of being coincidental.
The sources of long COVID, which can be known as long term COVID, post-COVID syndrome or post-acute sequelae of COVID, remain unknown.
"Theories include persistent immune activation after the acute phase; initial damage from the virus, such as for example harm to nerve pathways, that's slow to heal; and persistent occurrence of low-level virus," the analysis said.
Source: japantoday.com