Alarming! Post-COVID symptoms can persist for years

Recently, the cases of COVID-19 have increased alarmingly in Romania, and since the beginning of the pandemic, 3,539,775 cases of infection with SARS-CoV-2 have been registered until now.

Health problems and mental confusion can continue for years in people hospitalized with Covid in the early months of the pandemic, researchers say. Moreover, some patients may develop more severe and even new symptoms after a year.

Thus, the specialists observed that, although many people with long Covid experienced an improvement in their health over time, a significant proportion continued to face cognitive problems after two or three years. In addition, symptoms of depression, anxiety, and fatigue tend to worsen rather than decrease.

Post-COVID symptoms can persist for years

Scientists have long investigated Covid in 475 people hospitalized with the virus before the advent of vaccines to analyze whether symptoms such as mental confusion, fatigue and mental health problems persisted or appeared after the first year.

Although the researchers did not have data on the participants’ cognitive abilities before infection, cognitive tests conducted after two to three years showed that, on average, the patients’ IQs were ten points lower than estimates based on age, education and other factors.

One in nine patients showed signs of “severe cognitive deficits”, corresponding to an IQ 30 points below the predicted value.

Greater risk of cognitive problems

The study also shows that two to three years after infection, many experienced moderate to severe levels of depression (47%), fatigue (40%) and anxiety (27%).

Contrary to expectations, these symptoms did not improve over time but, on average, worsened compared to six to 12 months post-Covid.