It is always essential not to make the mistake of going it alone. But sure the new pattern of symptoms identified by a study published on Jama by a team from Massachusetts General Brigham helps us, three years after the beginning of a pandemic that many want to forget but whose aftermath we still deal with, to understand whether or not we suffer from long Covid. On the other hand, only in the United States – they are gods Centers for disease control and prevention he was born in Census Bureau – over 100 million people have had Covid. And whoever identified the infection, 15% unfortunately developed prolonged symptoms, even up to a couple of years. The so-called long Covid whose contours we have deepened on several occasions.
For this survey, the experts analyzed self-reported survey responses by nearly 9,800 patientswhich they described 37 different symptoms of Covid-19 at least six months after infection. Taking those reports, the researchers then developed a scoring system. If the overall score of symptoms suffered by a person reached a certain threshold, this patient was considered “positive” for long Covid.
I distinctive features pathology are therefore the following:
- post-exertional malaise (i.e. symptoms that worsen after less physical or mental activity)
- alteration of smell and taste
- chronic cough
- brain fog
- seven
- palpitations
- chest pain
- fatigue
- decreased sex drive
- dizziness
- gastrointestinal problems
- abnormal movements such as tremors
The researchers then analyzed the reported symptoms along with each patient’s history of infections and vaccinations, finally categorizing them into four different groups of symptoms and severity. For people who had been infected with Covid more than once and had not received the first full set of vaccine doses, the authors unsurprisingly found evidence of worse outcomesat least from this point of view. In short, in the most complicated conditions we find those who have not been vaccinated correctly and have had the infection several times.
The importance of investigations of this type is evident: during the pandemic, as the American explained Pbs, the lack of objective criteria has put both healthcare professionals and patients in difficulty. Doctors and researchers alike chased what looked like a moving target of evolving variants and diseases as they sought to better understand and mitigate the virus and its effects. “And long Covid patients have often felt as if they were adrift in the healthcare system, forced to protect themselves while educating doctors on the reality of their disease,” reporter Laura Santhanam correctly commented.
“We view this study as a critical first step in finding a common languagea unified strategy to identify people suffering from long Covid» he explained Andrea Foulkes, researcher and lead author of the study. Among the critics of the survey, other experts who have expressed concern that the public may confuse these 12 symptoms as too strict criteria for diagnosis.
View more
More stories from Vanity Fair that may interest you
1% of children develop long Covid, the discovery at the Gemelli in Rome
The symptoms of Long Covid that disappear in a year