Three Newly Published Studies Demonstrate Risks of Long-COVID
Three new studies on persistent COVID-19 symptoms showed that these “long-COVID” symptoms are not particularly rare. A study from The Lancet found that 12.7% of COVID-19 survivors experienced chest pain, shortness of breath, painful breathing and muscles, loss of taste or smell or other symptoms 3 to 5 months after infection.
A second study, published in JAMA Otolaryngology, found that 2 years after infection, 28% of patients continued to experience at least one COVID-19 symptom. Over 12% of patients had not full recovered their sense of taste and smell. Four weeks post-infection, 64.3% of people had impaired taste and smell, and these symptoms lingered for two months for 17.3% of patients. The researchers added that this study is based on pre-omicron infections and that smell and taste impairment generally occurs less frequently and severely for Omicron infections.
A CDC study revealed that children infected with COVID-19 faced a much higher risk of heart problems than kids who have not been infected. In the study children were twice as likely to suffer from acute pulmonary embolism, myocarditis and cardiomyopathy.
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