05:30 PM
Wednesday 27 July 2022
Books – Syed Metwally
The coronavirus is causing a tsunami of symptomatic cases in several countries around the world, including the United Kingdom, and it is not clear that the current wave has reached its peak.
Meanwhile, a new study has revealed a list of possible symptoms, one of which can be spotted in your hair, according to the British website express.
The current prevalence comes from the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 mutant – two recent variants whose sub-variants have the potential to infect people who were immune to previous forms of Omicron and other mutants.
Although cumulative immunity in the population means that the recent increase leads to a milder disease, higher infection rates lead to an increase in cases of long-Covid, now, a new study has identified the list of possible symptoms of long-Covid virus.
new symptoms
The new research indicates that hair loss and decreased sex drive are among a wider range of symptoms of long-term COVID-19, than previously thought.
The study, published in Nature Medicine, found that while the most common symptoms include loss of smell, shortness of breath and chest pain, others include memory loss, inability to perform familiar movements or commands, and hallucinations.
Symptom patterns tend to be grouped into respiratory symptoms, mental health and cognitive problems, and then a broader group.
In addition to discovering a wider range of symptoms, researchers have also identified key groups and behaviors that increase the risk of catching a prolonged COVID-19 virus.
Symptoms are prone to infection with long-term Covid
The study indicates that females, young adults, and those who belong to another ethnic, mixed or black group are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.
Additionally, people from poor backgrounds, smokers, people who were overweight or obese, as well as having a wide range of health conditions were associated with reporting persistent symptoms.
What did the study’s senior author say?
Senior author of the study Dr Shamil Haroun, associate professor of public health at the University of Birmingham, said: ‘This research validates what patients have been telling clinicians and policy makers throughout the pandemic – that the symptoms of prolonged Covid-19 disease are too broad to be complete, attributable to other factors such as risk related to lifestyle or chronic health conditions.
“The symptoms identified by clinicians and developers of clinical guidelines should help improve the assessment of patients with long-term effects of COVID-19, and subsequently consider how to better manage this burden of symptoms,” he added.
62 shows
The study found that people who tested positive for the virus reported 62 symptoms more frequently 12 weeks after their initial infection than those who did not have the virus.
Common symptoms of COVID-19 include fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain or tightness, and brain fog.
How did the researchers collect their results?
Researchers from the University of Birmingham analyzed the anonymized electronic health records of 2.4 million people in the UK along with a team of doctors and researchers across England.
The data collected between January 2020 and April 2021 consisted of 486,149 people with previous infection, and 1.9 million people without any indication of MERS-CoV after matching with other clinical diagnoses.
Using data from patients who were not admitted to the hospital, the team of researchers was able to identify the three distinct categories of symptoms.
“Our analyzes of risk factor data are of particular interest as they help us think about what could be causing or contributing to prolonged Covid-19,” said Anuradha Subramanian, a researcher at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Applied Health Research and lead author of the study.
“Women, for example, are more likely to develop autoimmune diseases, and the increased likelihood of women developing COVID-19 for a prolonged period in our study increases our interest in investigating whether autoimmunity or other causes may explain the increased risk in women,” she added.