More than a quarter of people with COVID-19 not fully recovered after 6?8 months

Healthcare professionals are researching long-term complications of SARS-CoV-2 infections, including symptoms lingering months after a person’s initial infection with the virus.A recent study, which appears in the journal PLOS One, reports that a quarter of the study participants had long-lasting symptoms of COVID-19 between 6 and 8 months after initial infection.The participants had lingering symptoms of difficulty breathing and fatigue, and assessment results that indicated depression.Understanding these long-term symptoms will help treat the people who have them.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) note that those who have contracted SARS-CoV-2 may experience acute symptoms of infection, while others may be asymptomatic. Some of the common lingering symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection include dyspnea, fatigue, cough, cognitive impairment, and pain.Infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner recalls the initial impact and stress on the healthcare system brought on by the pandemic.He told Medical News Today that the beginning of the pandemic was a period of rapid adjustment, where healthcare professionals had to learn how to take care of patients with COVID-19.He spoke of the difficulties, such as the stretching of resources, and the shortages of personal protective equipment.While the care of patients with COVID-19 has gotten better over time, Dr. Schaffner notes that long-term symptoms of COVID-19 and how SARS-CoV-2 causes these symptoms are areas that are still being studied.The population-based prospective cohort study from researchers in Switzerland examined the long-term symptoms of patients who had contracted SARS-CoV-2.The participants were residents of the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and had a confirmed infection of SARS-CoV-2 between February 27, 2020, and August 5, 2020.