Leaving a Viral Reminder?

A Lancet Respiratory Medicine report, perhaps illustrates a 'shape of things to come' in terms of people's longer term health after surviving a severe Covid19 infection (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/11/covid-hospitalised-long-symptomatic-two-years-on-wuhan-study). Almost 1200 participants, who had been hospitalised between January and May 2020, with a severe Covid19 infection were studied. All, had been patients in the Jin Yin-tan Hospital in Wuhan (site of the initial outbreak), China. The patients had an average age of 57 years at discharge. The participants were evaluated 6, 12 and 24 months after discharge. They were given a walking test, subjected to laboratory tests and completed a questionnaire on their symptoms, mental health and health-related quality of life issues. The health outcomes at the 2 year point, were comparing with those of a 'control' group, taken from the general population. The controls were matched in terms of age, sex and comorbidities (underlaying illnesses) but had not had a recorded Covid19 infection. More than 2 years after their Covid19 infection, more than 50% of the Covid19-infected participants still reported symptoms. The most common were fatigue and muscle weakness. More than 10% of these pople had not returned to work. The Covid19-infected group appeared to be in measurably poorer health than controls. Claims of muscle weakness and sleeping difficulties were much higher than in controls. It may be unwise to directly extrapolate the results of this study to all patients recovering from a severe Covid19 infection. This study is limited to data from a single centre, early in the pandemic. Responses to the later viral variants may be different. The results suggest, however, that responses to severe Covid19 infections may be a) quite common and b) long-lasting. Perhaps it's not only full-blown Long Covid, we have to worry about?