More than three-quarters of people hospitalized with COVID-19 were still suffering from at least one symptom after six months, according to a new study.
The study, published Saturday in the medical journal Lancet, involved hundreds of patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus was first discovered.
It turned out that fatigue or muscle weakness were the most common symptoms, while people also reported trouble sleeping.
Scientists said the study – one of the few to pinpoint the long-term symptoms of COVID-19 – demonstrates the need for further investigation into the coronavirus’ continued effects.
“Because COVID-19 is such a new disease, we are only beginning to understand some of its long-term effects on patient health,” said lead author Bin Cao of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine.
The professor said the study underscores the need for continued care for patients after they are released from the hospital, especially those who have had serious infections.
The new study included 1,733 COVID-19 patients discharged from Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan between January and May last year.
Patients with an average age of 57 years were visited between June and September and answered questions about their symptoms and health-related quality of life.
Researchers also conducted physical examinations and laboratory tests.
The study found that 76 percent of patients enrolled in the follow-up (1,265 of 1,655) said they still had symptoms.
Fatigue or muscle weakness was reported by 63 percent, while 26 percent had trouble sleeping.
The study also looked at 94 patients whose blood antibody levels were recorded at the peak of infection as part of another study.
When these patients were retested after six months, their neutralizing antibody levels were 52.5 percent lower.
The authors said this raises concerns about the possibility of COVID-19 reinfection, although they said larger samples would be needed to clarify how immunity to the virus changes over time.
The World Health Organization has said the virus poses a risk of serious ongoing effects for some people – even among young, otherwise healthy people who have not been hospitalized. To date, there have been more than 89 million confirmed coronavirus cases, including about 1.9 million related deaths and 49.5 million recovered.
“Patients need to be seen for a period of six months or more because of complications from contracting the virus. That means we will have even less capacity and less health personnel available to treat these individuals, ”Oksana Pyzik, global health advisor and teacher at UCL, told Al Jazeera.
“That will affect care for all kinds of chronic conditions,” such as cancer, Pyzik said.
In a commentary, also published in the Lancet, Monica Cortinovis, Norberto Perico and Giuseppe Remuzzi of Italy’s Istituto di Ricerche Pharmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS said there was uncertainty about the long-term health consequences of the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, there are few reports on the clinical picture of the aftermath of COVID-19,” they said, adding that the latest study was therefore “relevant and current.”
They said longer-term multidisciplinary research conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom would help improve understanding and develop therapies to “mitigate the long-term effects of COVID-19 on multiple organs and tissues.”