A new study suggested the majority of severe COVID-19 cases led to long-term symptoms among patients.
- The study specifically found that about 75% of patients who got a moderate-to-severe illness from COVID-19 also had at least one long-term symptom in the time that followed.
- The findings were reported in an analysis in JAMA Network Open.
What the study said
Researchers from Stanford University reviewed 45 different studies that followed about 9,751 patients after they got COVID-19. The studies found that 73% of patients had at least one long-term COVID-19 symptom at least 60 days after they were first diagnosed with COVID-19 or after they were admitted to a hospital.
- “That finding was consistent even in studies that followed patients up to six months,” according to CNN.
- The researchers said the patients were mostly hospitalized, so this isn’t likely the case for someone who got COVID-19 and then became asymptomatic.
So what were the common symptoms?
According to CNN, the researchers discovered there were some common symptoms among those patients, including:
- 40% had fatigue.
- 36% had shortness of breath.
- 25% had “an inability to concentrate, often referred to as brain fog,” according to CNN.
Why vaccines matter for long COVID-19 symptoms
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN that vaccines can help stop people from getting long-term symptoms.
- “There’s a syndrome that is referred to as long-COVID, which means that you get a syndrome following the clearing of the virus where it could be for months,” he said, according to CNN.