![]() This separates long COVID from the initial viral infection itself. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at the University of Wisconsin, told CNET in 2021, when scientists were first getting a grip on long COVID, that the key to discerning the condition is to pay attention to new symptoms that develop or ones that never go away, starting about 30 days post-infection. Symptoms include heart or cardiovascular problems, respiratory issues, immune system effects, neurological symptoms and even some reproductive issues.ĭr. Here's a roundup of what we know today.Īfter an initial infection is cleared, COVID-19 can linger and affect just about every system of the body, depending on the person. Non-specific symptoms that can easily fall into the category of other health conditions, like breathlessness, chronic headaches and chest pain, can make accurately diagnosing long COVID feel like catching a shadow.ĭespite what researchers are still trying to figure out, including more treatment options, better diagnostic tools and other factors, health care providers and scientists have made headway in their understanding of the condition. ![]() The condition can be mildly bothersome or debilitating, running the gamut of loss of smell, nausea and constipation, to organ damage or life-changing mental or cognitive symptoms. ![]() A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the number of people who reported COVID-19 symptoms that lasted longer than three months, currently or in the past, declined from 35% in June 2022 to 28% in January 2023. Though it's hard to put a number on what percentage of people will develop long COVID, since home tests and mild cases contribute to inaccurate case counts, somewhere between 10% of people who tested positive for COVID-19 but didn't need to be hospitalized, and 50% to 70% of people who were hospitalized, developed some degree of long COVID, according to a major review of long COVID research published earlier this year in Nature Reviews Microbiology.įortunately, rates of long COVID, also called "long-haul COVID" or "post-COVID conditions," may be declining. They live with long COVID, a condition health care providers have struggled to understand and accurately diagnose since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020. For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites.įor many people, what started out as a relatively mild case of COVID-19 persisted into a lingering condition that took weeks or months before their suffering subsided - some have yet to fully recover.
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