One in eight people with long-term Covid would keep symptoms over the long term, according to a study.
The Covid is one thing, the long Covid is another. Indeed, among those infected with the virus, one in eight would retain one of the characteristic symptoms of long-term Covid over the long termaccording to a Dutch study published Friday, August 5 in the scientific journal The Lancet. A study notably relayed by AFP and our colleagues from franceinfo.
This is one of the first studies to compare long-term symptoms after Covid infection with symptoms in an uninfected population. To carry it out, between February 2020 and August 2021, the researchers sent 24 times to 76,422 participants a questionnaire on 23 symptoms commonly associated with long Covid.
12.7% of patients developed a long Covid
They then came to the conclusion that 21.4% of Covid-19 positive participants experienced at least an increase in core symptoms three months or more after infection: breathing problems, loss of taste and smell, fatigue etc. .
However, 8.7% of uninfected participants developed similar symptoms. Except that in their case, they cannot have been caused by Sars-CoV-2. The researchers therefore estimated that a similar proportion of the symptoms observed in former Covid patients were also not caused by the virus. They therefore estimate the proportion of patients who have developed a long Covid at 12.7%, as recalled South West.
What are the main symptoms of Covid long observed here?
These symptoms include “abdominal pain, difficulty and pain in breathing, muscle aches, ageusia (lack of taste sensitivity) or anosmia (loss of sense of smell), tingling, discomfort in the throat, hot flushes or cold, heaviness in the arms or legs as well as general fatigue”, lists this study.
Are women more affected than men by the long Covid?
In a study published on Friday July 22 by Santé Publique France, 4% of the 27,537 respondents met the criteria for a “long Covid”. Among people who had a “probable or confirmed infection” with the coronavirus three months earlier, the figure increases dramatically, to 30%. The more time passes, the lower this percentage. The prevalence increases to 20% eighteen months after contamination. At the scale of the French population, at the time of the study, the “long Covid” would concern 2.06 million people over the age of 18.
“Women, working people and people who have been hospitalized” would be more affected by this post-Covid-19 condition. These categories of people had higher prevalences: 21.8%, 32.3% and 38% respectively.