A nurse at the bedside of a Covid-19 patient being treated in the intensive care unit of a hospital in the South of France. – Frederic DIDES / SIPA
Six months after being infected with the coronavirus, 60% of hospitalized patients “are still affected by at least one symptom”, most often fatigue, pain or difficulty breathing, according to
a French study published in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection, this Monday.
A quarter of them present “three or more symptoms” and 2% even “had to be hospitalized again”, conclude this work by Inserm, carried out on a cohort of 1,137 patients formed to follow Covid patients after their hospitalization.
A correlation between the severity of the infection and the persistence
“Significant feeling of fatigue, respiratory discomfort and muscle and joint pain were among the most frequently reported persistent clinical manifestations” during follow-up visits at three and six months after hospitalization for Covid-19. The researchers observed “a correlation between the initial severity of the disease and the long-term persistence of symptoms”.
Indeed, the persistence of at least three symptoms six months after infection “is more frequent in people whose Covid-19 disease required a stay in intensive care compared to those who were hospitalized in a medical department, and in the most symptomatic patients on the day of admission to hospital ”. They also show that “if men are more at risk of having severe forms, women seem to be more at risk of suffering from symptoms that persist over time”.
A third party did not return to work
Finally, the study underlines that these forms of long Covid sometimes also have broader consequences, at the economic and social level. Thus, among the patients who report symptoms at six months and who were at work when they were infected, a third did not return to work.
These results are consistent with those of several studies conducted in other countries in recent months. Persistent symptoms after infection with Sars-CoV-2 affect one in ten Covid cases with symptoms, by some estimates, including people out of hospital, who have had a mild or moderate form of the disease. The mechanisms involved are still poorly understood.