Lancet study says serious COVID-19 patients show symptoms for at least 2 years

New Delhi, May 12: A Lancet Study has said that at least half of the people who were admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 suffer from one or more symptoms two years after the infection.

A study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine on Tuesday said that the researchers found that the mental and physical health improves over a period of time. However COVID-19 patients tended to have poorer health and quality of life than the general population. The persisting symptoms included fatigue, shortness of breath and sleep difficulties.

Professor Bin Cao of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in China, and the lead author of the study said in a statement,,' our findings indicate that for a certain proportion of hospitalised Covid-19 survivors, while they may have cleared the initial infection, more than two years is needed to recover fully.

Ongoing follow-up of Covid-19 survivors, particularly those with symptoms of long Covid, is essential to understand the longer course of the illness, as is further exploration of the benefits of rehabilitation programmes for recovery."

"There is a clear need to provide continued support to a significant proportion of people who've had Covid-19, and to understand how vaccines, emerging treatments, and variants affect long-term health outcomes," the statement added.

The burden of symptomatic sequelae remained fairly high. The study findings indicate that there is an urgent need to explore the pathogenesis of long Covid and develop effective interventions to reduce the risk of long Covid, authors of the study said.