A study reveals that the long Covid Symptoms
make many changes in the body. It includes hair loss and reduced libido. Other
symptoms included chest pain, fever, bowel incontinence, erectile dysfunction,
and limb swelling. About 2 million
people in the UK have persistent symptoms after COVID infection, termed
long COVID. They commonly reported long COVID symptoms, such as
fatigue and shortness of breath, which have a significant effect on people's
daily activities, quality of life, and capacity to work. But long COVID symptoms are much broader than
this. In a new study published in the journal, Nature Medicine 62
symptoms have been identified as associated with long COVID.
Much of
the initial work undertaken to understand long COVID has been among people who
were hospitalized, but most people infected with COVID have been managed
in primary care, therefore, it is known relatively little about long COVID in
people with typically milder initial infections. In the study, it has
been analyzed electronic primary care records from more than 450,000 people in
England with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID, and 1.9 million people with no
prior history of COVID, from January 2020 to April 2021. Both groups were
matched very closely in terms of their demographic, social, and clinical
characteristics, then, scientists assessed the relative differences in the
reporting of 115 symptoms to GPs. For those who had COVID, they measured this
at least 12 weeks after they were infected.
They found
that people who had been diagnosed with COVID were significantly more likely to
report 62 symptoms, only 20 of which are included in the World Health
Organization's clinical case definition for long
COVID. Some of these symptoms were expected, like loss of sense of
smell, shortness of breath, and fatigue. But some of the symptoms
that they found to be strongly associated with COVID beyond 12 weeks were
surprising and less well known, such as hair loss and reduced libido. Other
symptoms included chest pain, fever, bowel incontinence, erectile dysfunction,
and limb swelling.
These differences in
symptoms reported between the infected and uninfected groups remained even
after we accounted for age, sex, ethnic group, socioeconomic status, body mass
index, smoking status, the presence of more than 80 health conditions, and past
reporting of the same symptom.
They also found
that younger age, female sex, belonging to certain ethnic minority groups,
lower socioeconomic status, smoking, obesity, and a wide range of health
conditions were all associated with a higher risk of reporting persistent
symptoms more than 12 weeks after COVID infection.
Stay healthy, stay safe...
