Startling, at the very least, are the findings of a new Chinese study which calls for a better understanding of the long-term effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected and killed millions worldwide.
The study should also be interesting to the Philippines, which has been under different stages of lockdown since mid-March last year: The coronavirus pandemic infecting to date 1,916, 461 with 142,531 active cases; killing 32,841 with 113 new deaths as against 1,741,089 recoveries with new recoveries at 6,771.
The focus of the latest study is that fatigue and shortness of breath still afflict many patients one year after being discharged from their hospitals—postponing for those still working their quick return to their jobs.
Some early studies have suggested that 10 to 20 percent of people with COVID-19 will experience symptoms lasting longer than a month, with a majority of those admitted to hospital with severe disease reporting long-term problems, including fatigue and shortness of breath.
Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment.
Older people and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness.
Older people and those with underlying medical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart problems, or diabetes are most likely to develop severe or critical form of COVID-19.
We find it alarming that around half of patients discharged from hospital for COVID still suffer from at least one persistent symptom—most often fatigue or muscle weakness—after 12 months, said the study published in British medical journal The Lancet.
The research, the largest yet on the condition known as “long COVID” which verily is today’s highest medical challenge, added that one in three patients still has shortness of breath a year after diagnosis.
That number is even higher in patients hit more severely by the illness.
Given the absence of proven treatments or even rehabilitation guidance, there is an urgency for more research to properly understand the virus and better care for patients who suffer from it.
The study followed nearly 1,300 people hospitalized for COVID between January and May 2020 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan—the first place affected by the pandemic that has since infected nearly 214 million people worldwide and killed nearly 5 million.
There is a causal sequence, kind of knock-on, to this: the long-term effect on the domestic economy with people’s mobility limping during the lockdown as well as on communities and households, chained to protect the population.