About 50 per cent of the patients who recovered from the infection were found to be suffering from mid and long-term persistent effects, said doctors during the launch of a post-COVID recovery clinic by Apollo Hospitals on Tuesday.

“COVID-19 has turned out to be a systemic disease that affects all the major organs. Most patients are now complaining of breathlessness and scarring of lungs. These problems are common in not just symptomatic, elderly patients but even among those who stayed in home isolation and did not have many symptoms,” said Dr V Ramasubramanian, senior consultant, infectious diseases, Apollo Hospitals. He added that many patients were also suffering from neurological problems and were finding it difficult to return to routine life. “Some of them suffer from brain fog and cannot operate their phones. Patients developing cardiac conditions get breathless even when they do minor exertion. There have even been cases of sudden death too due to cardiac conditions,” he added. Apart from acute events like stroke and myocardial infarction, chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension are also observed. Dr Sundararajan, senior consultant pulmonologist at the hospital said COVID-related manifestations occur weeks or months after the acute phase was over. Some of the long-term effects could be severe and disabling, which calls for recovery.

Doctors said that COVID pneumonia, sub-segmental pulmonary hypertension, blood clots, fibriosis and psychological issues were adding to the burden. Dr Suresh Kumar, senior consultant, infectious diseases, Apollo Hospitals said post-COVID syndrome might lead to an increase in morbidity and mortality beyond the pandemic among the large number of chronically ill individuals who have recovered. “Specialised clinics will prevent acute components of the post-COVID syndrome from progressing further,” he added.