Long COVID symptoms: Doctors find early pandemic survivors still showing symptoms 2 years later; know these long COVID symptoms

Many COVID-19 survivors have reported lingering symptoms that suddenly appear months and even a year after the initial infection. It is important to note that these patients experienced COVID-19 before vaccines were developed against SARS-CoV-2.

A recent study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine assessed the current health of some of the first COVID-19 survivors from Wuhan, two years later. Of the people assessed for the study, the researchers saw that half of these hospitalized patients are continuing to experience COVID-19 symptoms.

The new study, led by Professor Bin Cao of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, China, is the first to report on the health of people who had acute SARS-CoV-2 infection two years ago before vaccines were developed.

The 2,469 participants in the study had all been discharged from Jin Yin-tan Hospital between January 7 and May 29, 2020. 1,119 of them chose to continue undergoing hospital evaluations and interviews two years after infection.

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The most common long COVID symptoms after two years were muscle weakness or fatigue, and sleep difficulties, both reported by 31% of participants.

A prospective study of 55 patients in Hong Kong found that some people who were hospitalized with SARS still had impaired lung function 2 years after their symptoms began.

The Wuhan study’s authors write that long COVID symptoms at two years were related to decreased quality of life, lower exercise capacity, abnormal mental health, and increased use of healthcare after discharge.

Dr. David F. Putrino, associate professor of rehabilitation and human performance at Mount Sinai, New York, who was not involved in the study, told Medical News Today, “We are incredibly concerned by this. Although new variants and vaccination appear to have reduced the risk of long COVID overall, there is still a relatively large proportion of individuals experiencing long COVID symptoms after an acute infection, and we are incredibly concerned this will culminate in a mass-disabling event.”

Emily Brigham, M.D., M.P.H., who specializes in lung disease and critical care shared with John Hopkins Medicine that the sheer scale of caring for patients with lingering COVID-19 symptoms is a serious challenge. She notes that clinicians saw post-viral symptoms in patients affected by two other coronavirus diseases — severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

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The answer to this question is unknown. Though it seems like a very long time since the pandemic began, COVID-19 only began spreading widely in early 2020. The vast majority of people who have had the disease are only two years or less into their recovery. It will take more research and time to understand what is next for patients who have recovered from COVID-19 but still have long COVID health problems.