Researchers, including those from Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, University College London, conducted a study to characterise the symptom profile and time course in patients with long Covid.
The study, published in the preprint server medRxiv, surveyed 3,762 respondents from 56 countries. It confirmed the prevalence of 205 symptoms in 10 organ systems, with 66 symptoms traced over seven months.
The study noted the most frequent symptoms that were reported after six months. These include fatigue (77.7 per cent), post-exertional malaise (72.2 per cent), and cognitive dysfunction (55.4 per cent). These three symptoms were also the three most commonly reported overall.
It further revealed that 85.9 per cent of surveyed respondents experienced relapses, with exercise, physical or mental activity, and stress as the main triggers. 86.7 per cent of unrecovered respondents were experiencing fatigue, compared to 44.7 per cent of recovered respondents.
Also, 45.2 per cent of people reported requiring a reduced work schedule compared to pre-illness and 22.3 per cent were not working due to their health conditions.
The researchers concluded that patients with long Covid report prolonged multi-system involvement and significant disability.
Most had not returned to previous levels of work by six months. Many patients are not recovered by seven months, and continue to experience significant symptom burden, the study added.