Study Finds 60% of COVID-19 Patients Have Lingering Symptoms 6 Months After Hospitalization

According to this report published in the Clinical Microbiology and Infection journal, 60% of patients hospitalized for Covid-19 "are still affected by at least one symptom six months after infection". Fatigue, respiratory distress and muscle and joint pain are among the persistent symptoms in patients followed up six months after hospitalization for Covid-19.

A quarter of these patients have "three or more symptoms" and 2% have even "had to be hospitalized again," the same study conducted on a sample of 1,137 patients set up to monitor Covid-19 patients after their hospitalization points out.

The research work also made it possible to observe "a correlation between the initial severity of the disease and the long-term persistence of symptoms". Most of the patients who have at least three symptoms six months after the infection are patients who were hospitalized in intensive care and those who had manifested several symptoms.

The study also found that men are more at risk of developing severe forms and women seem more at risk of suffering from persistent symptoms over time.

In addition, the researchers analyzed, based on the sample subjected to the study, the economic and social impacts of the persistence of symptoms. The study, the results of which are consistent with those of several others conducted around the world, showed that among the patients who are dragging symptoms at six months and who were working when they were infected, a third have not returned to work.