Covid-19 Remains Harmful and Deadly Even Months After Infection
A new study shows just how bad long Covid can be
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A surprisingly large portion of patients who have suffered from Covid-19 continue to experience concerning symptoms and complications months after their initial infection. Increasingly, this prolonged battle is becoming known as long Covid, and those who suffer from it have been dubbed long haulers. Covid-19 differs from most other respiratory viruses in the sense that a lingering version exists, and scientists are working to better understand this emerging condition.
A manuscript from a recent study accepted for publication in the journal Nature was published online April 22. This report, authored by epidemiologists Ziyad Al-Aly and colleagues, provides unique insight into not only the vast number of conditions associated with long Covid, but also the risk of developing such sequelae.
Investigators leveraged the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) national health care database to acquire a broad range of health information from over 5 million patients. They note the VA system is the “largest nationally integrated health care delivery system in the U.S.”
The study looked at patients who survived Covid-19 beyond the first 30 days of illness and compared them to a control group of similar demographics and characteristics. After six months, a number of health-related factors were assessed in each group.
Researchers found that those who survived the first month of Covid-19 were at a 59% increased risk of death over the following 6 months. Over that half-year time frame, 14.4 per 1000 control patients died compared to nearly 22.8 per 1000 Covid patients. This equates to an estimated eight excess deaths per thousand individuals in the six months following illness.
Survivors of Covid-19 were also found to be at increased risk for a host of other medical conditions. They had over three times the risk of acute pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lungs). Their risk of anemia, sleep problems, and asthma, for example, increased by over 30%. Covid survivors were more likely to be prescribed antidepressants, anti-seizure medications, blood thinners, and medications to control abnormal heart rhythms.
