7 women
This was the work of seven scientists; of the Tow. Sandra Lopez-Leon, epidemiologist in New York; the Dra. Talia Wegman-Ostrosky, ontogenetics physician in Mexico City; the Dr. Rosalinda Sepúlveda, research psychiatrist at the Harvard School of Public Health; the Tow. Paulina A. Rebolledo, internist dedicated to infectious diseases patients COVID-19 at Emory Hospital in Atlanta; the Dr. Angelica Cuapio, research physician in immunology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden; Dr. Sonia Villapol, neuroscientist and professor at the Houston Methodist Research Institute in Texas; and I, honored among them all, Carol Perelman, QFB, disseminator of science.
For example, of the more than 18,000 studies found in the databases of medical and scientific literature, the 15 studies who met the inclusion criteria and from which information was obtained from more than 47,000 patients between 17 and 87 years old from countries such as Mexico, the United States, China, Egypt, Australia and European countries. And after the respective statistical analysis, that was found 80% of COVID-19 survivors remained with at least one symptom, sign, or abnormal laboratory parameters after acute infection. Some for a few more weeks, others for the 110 days that were the maximum duration of one of the studies. However, this was one of the limitations of the work, the studies no longer lasted; no doubt there are people with post-COVID-19 effects after the observed four months.
The symptoms
The most common symptom was fatigue, reported an average of 100 days after the COVID-19 diagnosis, somewhat reminiscent of the chronic fatigue syndrome caused by other viral infections, such as Epsten-Barr, cytomegalovirus and herpes. Second, it was discovered that humans had headaches, also hair loss, disturbance in attention and shortness of breath. What’s yes, the long-term effects of COVID-19 affect different organs and systems, so to manage them it is essential to understand and treat them with comprehensive solutions.
Many of the effects are neurological events, such as depression, anxiety, confusion, post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia; others involve the heart, such as arrhythmias and myocarditis; many occur in the lungs, such as cough, chest pain, low lung diffusion capacity, pulmonary fibrosis and sleep apnea; and less often effects on the eyes, digestive system, including skin.
More than 1 million Mexicans did not return to their pre-COVID-19 health status immediately after the illness
Despite the fact that as a result of all this, more and more specialized post-COVID-19 clinics are starting to establish themselves, involving multidisciplinary teams, it is important to further identify the risk factors that can cause this condition in order to design measures, preventive measures and better strategies for their management, treatment and rehabilitation. During the research, we realized that the published reports had collected much of their information through surveys with specific questions, and certainly some people were unable to record certain symptoms or signs they would have liked to share.
We therefore propose to add open spaces in future questionnaires for patients to add those effects that are not reported; not because they do not exist, but because they could not be collected due to the design of the studies. It is also essential to conduct the longer-term analysis, identifying the patients based on the severity of the condition COVID-19, including those who study COVID-19 mild, even asymptomatic, and do it for longer than 110 days, dividing the findings by gender and stratifying them by age. It is essential to better break down the characteristics of all patients in order to better understand this riddle and help them more effectively; without losing sight of the importance of an integral perspective: of the whole person.
Today, the best way to avoid post-COVID-19 consequences, avoid contamination, wear face masks and keep your distance, and of course apply the COVID-19 vaccine, as we still don’t know the mechanism by which the lingering effects. , nor the conditions that make 80% susceptible to developing it, followed by viral infection.
It is important to note that this figure is extraordinarily high, It would equate to the current state of more than 1 million Mexicans who did not return to their pre-COVID-19 state of health immediately after the disease.
Certainly in the future, when there are more studies with mild and asymptomatic patients, this prevalence will be adjusted. For reference, and to provide context, a published report recently in The Lancet found that 76 percent of patients studied had symptoms such as 6 months of COVID-19 fatigue in Wuhan, China. It is important to emphasize that the study published Jan. 30 in MedRxiv as preprint is the first of its kind: This is the first time that the literature available on this topic in 2020 has been revised and the studies are crossed to approximate the most accurate information. That is the relevance of our systematic review and meta-analysis.
Hopefully, over time, with the help of the groups who, because of their frustration, have formed the patients themselves on social networks, and because of the interest of more and more medical and scientific groups dedicated to them, we will see the consequences of COVID-19 to soon return to so many thousands, if not millions of people, their quality of life, their health status.
The first call to international health authorities was to recognize it, now the call is to define the correct term are used to include the long-term effects of COVID-19. Let’s start with giving it a name and a clear description. Perhaps future doctors, some of whom are in their first year of college today, will be able to specialize this new branch of internal medicine that will no doubt be one of the many consequences we will inherit from this dystopian pandemic.
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