Assessment and characterisation of post‐COVID‐19 manifestations

Abstract

Background Post COVID‐19 symptoms and diseases appeared on many survivors from COVID‐19 which are similar to that of the post‐severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) fatigue. Hence, the study aims to investigate and characterize the manifestations which appear after eradication of the coronavirus infection and its relation to disease severity. Method 287 survivors from COVID‐19 were included in the study, each received a questionnaire divided into three main parts starting from subjects’ demographic data, data about the COVID‐19 status and other comorbidities of the subject, and finally data about post‐COVID‐19 manifestations. Response surface plots were produced to visualize the link between several factors. Results Only 10.8 % of all subjects have no manifestation after recovery from the disease while a large percentage of subjects suffered from several symptoms and diseases. The most common symptom reported was fatigue (72.8 %), more critical manifestations like stroke, renal failure, myocarditis, and pulmonary fibrosis were reported by a few percent of the subjects. There was a relationship between the presence of other comorbidities and severity of the disease. Also, the severity of COVID‐19 was related to the severity of post‐COVID‐19 manifestations. Conclusion The post‐COVID‐19 manifestation is largely similar to the post‐SARS syndrome. All subjects recovered from COVID‐19 should undergo long‐term monitoring for evaluation and treatment of symptoms and conditions that might be precipitated with the new coronavirus infection.

Impacts of COVID-19 on long-term health and health care use

“…Such general and unspecified conditions may include a wide range of symptoms and clinical signs not classifiable or detectable on imaging or laboratory tests, such as ICPC-2 codes "A01 -generalized pain", "A02 -chills", "A05 -feeling ill" and "A04 -fatigue". Given previous studies [2][3][4]9], the minor increase in general and unspecified conditions in primary care deserves attention in future research despite no indications of overall elevated health care use 4-6 months after mild COVID-19 in our population-wide analyses.…”

“…While the long-term deterioration in health for patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 has been documented in several studies [2][3][4]6], evidence on so-called "post-covid syndrome", "post-acute covid-19" or "long covid" is very limited for the vast majority of persons that have a mild disease course of COVID-19 [15] . This syndrome has been described as a multisystem disease (based on patient-reported data), sometimes occurring after a relatively mild acute illness, i.e.…”

“…Studies have suggested COVID-19 survivors frequently experience fatigue (44-78%), sleep difficulties (23%), anxiety or depression (23%) and loss of smell and taste (3-24%) 6-months after acute infection, whereas more critical manifestations like stroke, renal failure, myocarditis and pulmonary fibrosis were rare [2][3][4][5][6]. Other clinical studies have reported a higher frequency of respiratory dysfunctions and diabetes for COVID-19 patients who had been hospitalized [7,8].…”

Hydroxychloroquine, nitazoxanide and ivermectin have similar effects in early COVID-19: a head-to-head comparison of the Pre-AndroCoV Trial.

“…The apparently high rate of post-COVID syndrome, presented as a wide variety of physical and mental symptoms, that impair normal functionality (31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36), likely leading to a post-COVID public health issue, should become a key clinical outcome when evaluating and proposing interventions for patients with COVID-19. The persistence of symptoms or occurrence of new symptoms after COVID-19 cure in the population of the present study was as low as 1.5%, consistent throughout the different populations and drugs used, in contrast to the almost 90% of patients with manifestations after recovery, including 72.8% complaining of fatigue, when not pharmacologically approached during early COVID-19 (33).…”

Association between chronic fatigue syndrome and suicidality among survivors of Middle East respiratory syndrome over a 2-year follow-up period

“…Furthermore, in a cross-sectional study of EVD survivors, unusual tiredness was one of the most common symptoms persisting for longer than 10 months ( Wilson et al, 2018 ). A study of COVID-19 survivors also reported fatigue as the most common symptom of recovery and emphasized long-term tracking of survivors ( Kamal et al, 2020 ).…”