New Delhi: It is more than two and half years now that the world is fighting the deadly SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19 infection.
And now, a follow-up study by the medical journal, The Lancet has revealed that people who suffered from serious Covid infection can show symptoms of the virus for as long as two years.
The study was published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
According to the researchers who conducted the study, evidence has shown that a considerable proportion of people who have recovered from COVID-19 have long-term effects on multiple organs and systems.
The Lancet in the summary of its study further said that COVID-19 survivors had longitudinal improvements in physical and mental health, regardless of initial disease severity.
However, it noted that the burden of symptomatic sequelae remained fairly high.
The Lancet research further states, "COVID-19 survivors had a remarkably lower health status than the general population at 2 years. 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."
"Future studies should further explore the pathogenesis of long COVID and develop effective intervention strategies to reduce the risk of long COVID," the Lancet said.
The medical journal said that the sequelae after recovery from acute COVID-19 are undoubtedly a great health concern and might cause a big medical and socioeconomic burden, given the huge number of individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 up to now.
Earlier in late April, the UK had said that not even one in four people have completely recovered from Covid a full year after being hospitalized with the disease, warning that long Covid could become a common condition.
"The limited recovery from five months to one year after hospitalization in our study across symptoms, mental health, exercise capacity, organ impairment, and quality-of-life is striking," study co-leader Rachel Evans of the National Institute for Health and Care Research had said.
The most common long-Covid symptoms were fatigue, muscle pain, poor sleep, slowing down physically, and breathlessness.
"Without effective treatments, long Covid could become a highly prevalent new long-term condition," said study co-lead Christopher Brightling of the University of Leicester.