Long-term COVID can include chronic fatigue

To better understand what could be causing their symptoms, researchers ran tests to assess their breathing patterns during exercise and typical daily routines.

Participants were also asked to report fatigue patterns during the previous semester, as well as any joint stiffness, muscle pain, sleep and concentration issues, and strain-related issues.

A total of 46% had developed chronic fatigue post-COVID, according to the study. And it’s a disturbing finding, Mancini said, given that in many cases the initial COVID infection was not fatal or even that severe.

His conclusion: “Basically anyone with COVID is at risk. “

This concern is shared by Dr. Colin Franz, assistant professor of physical medicine, rehabilitation and neurology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, who reviewed the results.

As researchers try to define this problem, between 0.5% and 1% of out-of-hospital COVID patients develop at least one long-term symptom, he said. “Considering the large number of people with COVID around the world, that adds up to millions of people,” Franz said.

In fact, most people who develop long-term COVID problems have never been so sick with COVID itself, he added.

“As someone who sees multiple post-COVID patients per week with persistent shortness of breath, I’m not surprised by these results,” Franz said, “although I think a lot of my colleagues might not see lots of messages. -Long-haul COVID. “

Franz said he was skeptical at first when he heard of persistent symptoms in patients whose COVID infection did not get them to hospital.

“But my involvement in our post-COVID clinical rehabilitation program has convinced me that this is a really common problem,” he added.

The new findings were published in the December issue of JACC: Heart failure.

More information

There’s more on long-haul COVID at U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCES: Donna Mancini, MD, professor, medicine, cardiology, and population health science and policy, Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai, New York City; Colin Franz, MD, PhD, Clinician Scientist, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and Assistant Professor, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago; JACC: Heart failure, December 2021