This work, carried out in the Netherlands, is, by its scope and methodology, an important piece to better understand the risk of long Covid.
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Among people with Covid-19, one in eight retains one of the characteristic symptoms of long Covid over the long term, shows a study published on Friday August 5 in the scientific journal The Lancet. This work, carried out in the Netherlands, is, by its scope and its methodology, an important piece to better understand the risk of long Covid, that is to say the persistence of lasting symptoms after a coronavirus infection.
In the current state of knowledge, we know that there are sequelae specific to a coronavirus infection in certain patients and that these cannot be explained solely by psychosomatic disorders, as certain doctors initially put forward. But the frequency of these disorders and, even more so, the physiological mechanisms by which they occur are largely unknown. If the Lancet study does not answer this second question, it makes it possible to better clarify the first element, firstly because it was carried out on a large number of patients: more than 4,000 people with Covid.
These symptoms include “abdominal pain, difficulty and pain in breathing, muscle aches, ageusia or anosmia, tingling, discomfort in the throat, hot or cold flushes, heaviness in the arms or legs as well as general fatigue”lists this published study. “In 12.7% of patients, these symptoms can be attributed to Covid-19”three to five months after infection, conclude the authors.