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By E.J. Mundell<\/b>
HealthDay Reporter<\/i><\/p>\n
FRIDAY, July 10, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
Even a month after hospital discharge and “recovery,” a majority of patients who had survived severe COVID-19<\/a> were still dealing with fatigue<\/a>, shortness of breath<\/a> and other symptoms, Italian research shows.<\/p>\n The study tracked outcomes for 143 hospitalized patients treated in April in Rome, at the height of the Italian COVID-19<\/a> pandemic.<\/p>\n They’d spent an average of about two weeks under hospital care, and one-fifth had required some form of respiratory support, said a team led by Dr. Angelo Carfi, of the Policlinic Foundation University Agostino Gemelli, in Rome.<\/p>\n Assessed an average of five weeks after discharge, few of these survivors could say that their lives and health had returned to normal. In fact, “87.4% reported persistence of at least one symptom,” most typically fatigue<\/a> (53% of patients) or a troubling shortness of breath<\/a> (43%).<\/p>\n Other lingering symptoms included joint pain<\/a> (about 27% of patients) and chest pain<\/a> (nearly 22%), Carfi’s group reported July 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association<\/i>.<\/p>\n Only about 13% of all of the recovering patients said they were free of symptoms at 36 days after discharge: About one-third said they had one or two symptoms and more than half (55%) said they suffered three or more.<\/p>\n Based on the findings, Carfi’s team said that “clinicians and researchers have focused on the acute phase of COVID-19<\/a>, but continued monitoring after discharge for long-lasting effects is needed.”<\/p>\n That notion was seconded by one U.S. expert who’s seen his share of COVID-19<\/a> patients. Dr. Robert Glatter is an emergency medicine<\/a> physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, the early epicenter of the U.S. pandemic.<\/p>\n “The harsh reality is that many patients continue to experience lingering symptoms for weeks and months after being diagnosed with and ‘recovering’ from COVID-19<\/a>,” Glatter said.<\/p>\n Why that happens remains unclear, he said, but “one theory is that COVID-19<\/a> leads to a state of chronic inflammation,” as can happen with viral infections such as Epstein-Barr.<\/p>\n “While this small study found that fatigue<\/a> and shortness of breath were the two most common symptoms, many people also experience many other lingering symptoms including low-grade fevers<\/a>, and neurologic symptoms such as numbness and tingling,” Glatter noted.<\/p>\n COVID-19 takes a mental health<\/a> toll, as well, he said.<\/p>\n “‘Long haulers’ also must deal with issues of depression<\/a> and anxiety<\/a>, making the disease not only physically but emotionally disabling,” Glatter said.<\/p>\n “The bottom line is that we need to pay attention to those individuals with ongoing symptoms and pursue research to address the underlying mechanism of such symptoms,” he concluded.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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