New Study: Redefining Covid-19: Months after infection, patients report breathing difficulty, excessive fatigue

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Sun, 2020-09-13 10:27 — mike kraft

Months after Covid-19 infection, patients report breathing difficulty and fatigue New research shows that 12 weeks after infection, 75% of those hospitalized with Covid-19 still have a range of severe and disabling symptoms. Many patients' symptoms can be explained by dysautonomia, a disruption of autonomic nervous system processes. Ryan Prior, CNN CNN

CNN)It's been five months since Lucy Gahan contracted Covid-19, and her life still hasn't returned to normal.

Gahan, a clinical psychologist in Shrewsbury, United Kingdom, hasn't been able to return to work.

The disease causes what she calls "storms," disabling periods when she feels shortness of breath, numbness in her hands and feet and her heart rate shoots up from simple tasks. Even taking a shower is possible only during an occasional respite in symptoms.

"In May and June, I could barely talk because I was so ill," she said. ...

She is one of thousands around the world for whom Covid-19 has turned into a chronic condition. Gahan and other Covid-19 "long haulers" feel they aren't yet getting recognition for an illness that has disabled them for months, with no end in sight. ...

About three-quarters of those hospitalized for Covid-19 could become long haulers, according to a paper uploaded to the pre-print server medRxiv on August 14 without having yet been vetted by outside experts or accepted for publication.

Researchers from the Academic Respiratory Unit of the North Bristol NHS Trust in the UK looked at 110 Covid-19 patients, whose illnesses required hospital stays for a median of five days between March 30 and June 3....

The British Medical Journal released new guidance for health providers in August on how to treat long-haul Covid-19 patients, estimating that up to 10% of all people who have tested positive could develop a prolonged illness. The guidance includes specific blood tests to perform, possibly referring patients to pulmonary rehabilitation and having them use pulse oximetry at home to measure oxygen saturation in the blood. ...

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