What are the key symptoms?
With health experts still gaining evidence to try and understand the condition better, the picture on Long Covid is still incomplete.
Current indicators of it include persistent tiredness, anxiety, shortness of breath, palpitations, chest pain, muscle aches and ‘brain fog’, which all form part of different bodily reactions to the virus.
Studies from the United States go a step further, with a report from the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention claiming the longer-term effect can contribute to lung function abnormalities, heart muscle inflammation, acute kidney injuries and neurological complaints.
What Causes Long Covid?
With science still playing catch up on understanding the virus, specific causes are still unknown, with an overactive immune response highlighted as a potential trigger.
This can cause internal damage to a patient, with particular concern over the impact on lung capacity.
What does NIHR UK repor ‘Living with Covid19 – Second review’ (Published on 16 March 2021) says:
The ONS (January 2021) estimated that 20% of all people in the UK who had tested positive for Covid19 exhibit symptoms for 5 weeks or longer and 10% exhibit symptoms for 12 weeks or longer. They reported an incidence of 301,000 people with symptoms lasting between 5 and 12 weeks for the week commencing 27th December 2020.
COVID-19 Data Repository by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University:
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