85% of people with a long Covid still have symptoms a year after their appearance, according to a study by the Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) and the University of Paris Cité, published in the journal NatureCommunications on April 5 and relayed in a press release from the AP-HP on Friday April 8.
“This study is the first to describe the dynamics, day after day, of the symptoms of long Covid”, underlines the AP-HP in its press release. The researchers followed the evolution of 53 persistent symptoms in 968 patients for one year. The patients themselves provided information on the evolution of their symptoms every 60 days on the ComPaRe platform.
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Half of the symptoms (27 out of 53), such as cough, smell and taste disorders, decrease “gradually over time”. The proportion of patients who suffer from these symptoms decreases over the months. For example, 40% of patients with long Covid have taste disorders two months after the onset of the disease, but their share decreases to 20% after one year.
On the other hand, fatigue is one of the 18 symptoms that do not decrease over time: the number of patients with long Covid who suffer from fatigue after two months remains the same after a year. And on the contrary, eight symptoms tend to increase over time, such as hair loss. This signs “the appearance of new manifestations of the disease”according to the AP-HP.
The researchers note that “the rate of symptoms and attacks of the patients evolved, with a progressive spacing of the attacks over time”. Nevertheless, “one year after the onset of symptoms, 60% of patients reported a very significant impact of the disease on their personal, professional and social life.
The study distinguishes symptoms related “to the sequelae of the acute illness”who “decrease over time”of those who are related “to other mechanisms, whether immunological, psychosomatic or still unexplained”. Other work is in progress to schematize the evolution of symptoms.