Filenews 10 April 2021 - by Ioanna Mantziepa
With long-term symptoms and effects after covid-19 disease is faced a large percentage of patients, especially those who needed to be hospitalized or even in Intensive Care Units, states in "F", the pulmonologist Haris Armitis. He explains that more than half of patients in Cyprus continue to have symptoms of long covid-19 or post-Covid syndrome and in some cases these exceed four months after acute infection.
The term long covid-19, as Dr. Armeitis explains, has to do with the lingering symptoms that follow the virus disease. "Acute infection of the disease ends, patients are released from confinement, however there is a period of time that symptoms remain. Patients suffering from post-Covid syndrome describe a phase of a combination of overlapping symptoms." He explained that this phase, according to the literature, can vary for a period of four weeks or more. In some patients it is recorded from four to twelve weeks, however there are also cases where the symptoms last more than twelve weeks after the acute phase. He said a patient could be discharged from hospital or from a common ward or intensive care unit, but for a long time to have prolonged symptoms.
According to Dr. Armitis the symptoms that are extended are mainly the feeling of fatigue, which is recorded in up to 80% of cases. Also, the feeling of shortness of breath, pain or weight in the chest and cough. Less frequently observed symptoms such as lack of taste, joint pain, headaches, runny nose, anorexia, muscle a pains, sweating, diarrhea.
Also, another important element recorded among prolonged symptoms concerns psychological effects and neurological symptoms. As Dr. Armitis explained, 24% of patients have a post-traumatic syndrome and the occurrence of stressful episodes. "Some have memory loss, lack of concentration and anxiety disorders." In fact, he said, these symptoms mainly concern patients who were forced to be hospitalized in intensive care units.
Asked about the proportion of patients in Cyprus who show symptoms (long covid-19) at the end of hospitalization, Dr. Armitis clarified that there is a similar picture to that recorded in other countries. "About half of the patients who will pass covid, show a delay in quickly returning to normal life rates. A lot of times patients ask me when they're going to get back to their previous condition. Here an important factor has to do with the severity of covid disease passed by the patient, but also the range of symptoms. I'm sure the next few months will give us a clearer picture," he noted.
He added that those who also had a more serious disease, the elderly, those who have underlying diseases or even those who experienced some complications during their hospitalization, need a longer recovery time that can exceed a period of months. "It could be four months and they have symptoms," he said.
Asked if he had been confronted with such incidents, he said these are too often. "In pulmonologists, a significant number of their patients currently have cases that have passed the virus and have post-Covid syndrome." A typical example, he said, is a patient who, while hospitalized in intensive care, after being discharged and for a period of about two months, remained at home with the administration of supplemental oxygen. "Some patients have slow but steady improvement, and there are cases where oxygen therapy is also needed."
In conclusion, Dr Armitis said that patients who have been hospitalised and show symptoms after the end of their hospitalization, i.e. have prolonged covid, should be given a pneumonia and cardiological assessment within two or three weeks after the onset of the disease.
Symptoms of long COVID-19
Fatigue: Many studies have found that fatigue is the most common and annoying symptom of long COVID-19, with ONS data showing that 11.8% of patients lasted for five weeks after infection and 8.3% of them for 12 weeks. Some even reported suffering from fatigue even 100 days after the infection.
Headache and mental disorders: Headache is a common evidence of long COVID-19, affecting one in 10 patients up to five weeks after infection. US researchers also reported "neuropsychiatric symptoms" - i.e. mental disorders associated with nerve diseases - in patients with long COVID-19. Headache held the highest proportion in this category of symptoms (44%) followed by the concentration disorder (27%) and loss of smell (21%).
Hair loss: Up to one in four people infected with COVID-19 reported hair loss in various studies and surveys. Experts say it may be a condition called "temporary hair loss" and is usually due to diseases, stress, poor diet, pregnancy or menopause. On the plus side, this condition appears to be a short-term symptom of the disease, lasting about three months.
Shortness of breath: Difficulty breathing shows about a quarter of patients who have survived COVID-19, according to a US study. In 35% of patients, abnormalities in chest X-rays were observed up to 100 days after the disease due to coronavirus, while in 10% there was a decrease in lung function.
Cough: One of the most persistent symptoms of coronavirus is coughing, with 7-10% of patients suffering significantly.
