BY SPUTNIK WORLD
Nearly 400 million people worldwide have suffered from long-term COVID-19, according to recent research from Washington University in St. Louis, United States, published this Friday, August 9, in the scientific journal ‘Nature‘.
“Long COVID dramatically impacts patients’ wellbeing and sense of self, as well as their ability to work, socialise, care for others, manage household tasks and participate in community activities, which also impacts patients’ families, carers and their communities,” the research says.
To reach their conclusions, the authors evaluated dozens of studies and metrics from 2023, estimating that about 6% of adults and about 1% (about 400 million people) of children had experienced long-term COVID-19 at some point since the pandemic began.
The estimate took into account that new cases of the disease slowed in 2022 and 2023 thanks to vaccines and the Omicron variant being milder.
However, scientists suggest the real number could be higher, as the research only included people who developed the disease after having symptoms during the infectious stage of the virus, but not people who were infected with COVID-19 more than once.
What is long COVID?
Long COVID occurs when symptoms of the disease persist for four or more weeks after a case of COVID-19.
According to the research, “some manifestations of long COVID, including heart disease, diabetes, myalgia encephalomyelitis and dysautonomia, are chronic, lifelong conditions.”
The study’s authors cited data suggesting that only 7 to 10 percent of people with COVID-19 have fully recovered two years after developing the disease. However, the cause of the illness is still unknown, although some theories suggest that fragments of the virus remain in the body.
The responsibility for conditions such as immune system deregulation, inflammation and blood circulation problems, as well as microbiome imbalance, is also being studied.
Economic impacts
According to the report, between two and four million adults were out of work in 2022 due to long COVID.
Research also suggests that nearly 10% of people with the disease are less likely to be employed than those who never contracted the disease.
In addition, patients with long-term COVID-19 often have to reduce their working hours. One in four limit their activities outside of work.
Because of this, as well as healthcare services, the research team estimated that the economic cost of long COVID is around $1 trillion a year worldwide, equivalent to 1% of the global economy.
Finally, the researchers in charge of the study acknowledge that very little is still known about this disease and there is an “almost total absence of evidence, of randomized clinical trials that guide treatment decisions.”
In this regard, care for long-term COVID patients around the world is hampered by overburdened health systems and a lack of knowledge on the part of medical professionals, who sometimes misassess psychosomatic symptoms.
“Long COVID likely represents a disease with many subtypes, each of which may have its own risk factors, biological mechanisms and disease trajectory, and may respond differently to treatments,” the authors concluded.
