Long-term side effects of the coronavirus disease are now increasingly being reported, with the so-called “long coronavirus” causing problems like hair loss and decreased libido, according to British scientists at the University of Birmingham.

About 2 million people in the UK have persistent symptoms after contracting the coronavirus, called chronic Covid.

Frequently reported long-term symptoms such as fatigue and shortness of breath have a significant impact on people’s daily activities, quality of life and ability to work.

But the long-term symptoms of Covid are much broader. In a new study published in the journal Nature Medicine, British scientists documented 62 symptoms associated with the long course of Covid-19.

Much of the initial work undertaken to understand long-term Covid has been in people who have been hospitalized, but most people infected with coronavirus have been treated in primary care settings. Therefore, we know relatively little about long-term Covid in people with usually milder initial infections.

The study analyzed the electronic primary health care records of more than 450,000 people in England with confirmed Covid and 1.9 million people who had not previously had Covid between January 2020 and April 2021. social and clinical characteristics. Relative differences in reporting of 115 symptoms to general practitioners were then assessed. For those who had Covid, assessments were made at least 12 weeks after infection.

The scientists found that people who were diagnosed with Covid were significantly more likely to report 62 symptoms, only 20 of which are included in the World Health Organization case definition for long-term COVID.

Some of these symptoms were expected, such as loss of smell, shortness of breath, and fatigue. However, some of the symptoms that we found to be strongly associated with COVID after 12 weeks were unexpected and lesser known, such as hair loss and decreased libido. Other symptoms included chest pain, fever, fecal incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and limb edema.

These differences in reported symptoms between infected and uninfected groups persisted even after adjusting for age, gender, ethnic group, socioeconomic status, body mass index, smoking status, presence of more than 80 health conditions, and previous reporting of the same symptom.

It also found that younger age, female gender, belonging to certain ethnic minorities, lower socioeconomic status, smoking, obesity, and a wide range of medical conditions were associated with a higher risk of reporting persistent symptoms more than 12 weeks after exposure to coronavirus. .

The analysis concludes that long-term Covid can be divided into three distinct groups based on reported clusters of symptoms. A large group, including about 80% of people with long-term Covid in the study, experienced a wide range of symptoms ranging from fatigue, headaches and pain. The second largest group, at 15%, had mostly mental and cognitive symptoms such as depression, anxiety, brain dysfunction, and insomnia. The third and smallest group, making up the remaining 5%, had mostly respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath and cough.

Source: Conversation