Cough, fatigue endure for one in 20 covid patients

About 5% of people diagnosed in NSW last year were still experiencing symptoms three months later.

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Among those who developed covid during NSW’s first wave in 2020, one in 20 reported lasting symptoms three months following diagnosis.

A study out of the University of New South Wales, published today in The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, found that in a population sample of 2904 patients with mostly symptomatic laboratory-confirmed covid, 5% reported having residual cough and fatigue 12 weeks after disease onset.

The research team identified individuals through the NSW Notifiable Conditions Information Management System between January and May 2020 who had follow-up information available for a median of 16 days.

The average age of the patient cohort was 47 years, 65% had reported at least one comorbidity and about half were female.

“In summary, we found that in a large whole-of-population sample of mostly symptomatic people with laboratory confirmed covid-19, while 80% recover within 30 days of infection, at 3 months from disease onset, 7% had not,” the study authors said.

“Given that 1.8% of people in our sample also died of covid-19, our data suggests that approximately 5% of people with covid-19 will continue to experience symptoms at 3 months post-infection.”

The study supports numerous case studies from around the world which have reported prolonged recovery from covid infection with lasting symptoms including fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain or palpitations, changes in mood, disrupted sleep and cognitive dysfunction.

And given Australia has diagnosed about 30,000 cases of covid since the start of the pandemic, this latest research indicates that prolonged covid recovery could pose a problem for a significant number of Australians.

The authors compared the situation with that of influenza, where recovery is generally expected within two weeks from diagnosis.

“Our data further demonstrates the substantial direct impact of covid-19 on population health and the need to consider not only the impact of covid-19 on hospitalisations and deaths but also the longer-term health of those who have milder forms of the disease,” the authors said.

“With now more than 150 million cases diagnosed worldwide, the findings from this study highlight the importance of preventing infections through both non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination to avoid direct effects on longer-term health in the population. They also highlight the need to improve clinical services to support recovery from covid-19.”