Fatigue most common post-Covid symptom
A long
term study of 990 patients who were infected with Covid-19 in the early months of
the pandemic found that 11% continued to have some form of symptoms for as long
as 9-12 months from the onset of the disease, with fatigue being the most common
amongst them.
The
study, conducted by Max Healthcare, looked at 990 patients who had been admitted
to three of its hospitals in Delhi between April and August 2020 and telephonically
followed up with them once in September 2020 and again in March 2021.
While tracking
long Covid in them, it found that 40% had experienced some form of long Covid, which
covers both ongoing symptomatic phase (from 4 to 12 weeks following the onset of
illness), and post-Covid-19 phase (symptoms that develop during or after
Covid-19, and continue for more than 12 weeks, not explained by an alternative diagnosis).
Of the 990,
62 patients, or 8% of the total, reported symptoms lasting between 1-3 months. 118
or 15% had symptoms lasting 3-6 months, 43 or 5.5% had symptoms lasting 6-9 months,
and 85 or 11% continued to have symptoms even in March 2021.
The study
notes that all the patients with post-Covid reported only minor symptoms such as
fatigue, myalgia, breathlessness, depression, and anxiety.
Of these,
fatigue was the most common and was found to be reported more often in the elderly
and those who had severe Covid illness at the time of admission. Breathlessness
too was reported more frequently amongst those who had severe disease at the beginning.
The study
found no correlation between developing post- Covid symptoms and age, gender, co-morbidities,
or the severity of disease; however, duration of post-Covid symptoms the disease
severity at time of admission but not to age, gender and co-morbidities, Among all
the respondents, 62.2% had mild illness, 22.9% had moderate, and 15.0% had severe
Covid illness at the time of admission.
A total of
331 of the 399 patients who had reported symptoms in the first follow up responded
to the second follow up.
The study
tells us how much time it took this set of patients to resume their daily routine
— 214 (68.8%) reported they were able to resume their daily routine within a month
of discharge, 77 (24.8%) took 1 to 3 months, and 20 (6.4%) took 4 months or more.
This
entity of ’Post-Covid Syndrome' needs to be explored further. It is not fully known
yet what kind of patients gets this affliction, how many days such symptoms
persist and with what outcome. This may vary from area to area but highlights the
need for long term follow- up by a multidisciplinary team including general practitioners,
physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and rehabilitation programs to improve
the quality of life of these patients,” as per the study.