Post-COVID complications may linger even a year after recovery: study

The research by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research also indicates that individuals struggling with chronic hypertension or diabetes may be at 2-3 times higher risk of suffering post-COVID complications.

IEDCR’s Field Epidemiology Training Programme, with assistance from the United States’ Center for Disease Control or CDC, carried out the study following the initial symptoms shown by COVID-infected patients.

The number of samples used in the study was not revealed by the IEDCR that published the findings on its website.

The initial symptoms of contracting the disease include fever, cold, sneezing, coughs, throat-ache, breathing issues, lowered senses of taste or smell. However, these issues may linger even after recovering from the disease.

IEDCR researcher Mushtuq Husain said, “People can have issues in their physical systems despite recovering [from COVID]. Among them are hypertension, rise in blood sugar, sleeplessness, chest pain, mental issues, loss of memories, irritation and irregular heartbeats.”

The World Health Organisation call these health issues post-COVID conditions.

According to the study carried out on patients, 78 percent of the patients who recovered from the disease at least three months ago showed these post-COVID symptoms, while 70 percent of them showed the signs six months later. And 68 percent of individuals displayed these signs nine months later and 45 percent after a year.

“It is evident that patients struggling with complications like high blood pressure and diabetes need to take medications prescribed by the doctor to lessen their sufferings.”

The IEDCR also said that patients with issues of high blood pressure on regular medications prescribed by their doctors are at a 9 percent lower risk of showing such symptoms. Similarly, the risks for diabetes patients in such cases are lowered by 7 percent.