NEW DELHI: An overwhelming majority of patients who have recovered from Covid-19 continue to report symptoms. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 87.4 per cent of recovered patients reported persistence of at least one symptom, particularly fatigue and dyspnea (difficult or laboured breathing) even after two months of being discharged from the hospital and very few patients were symptom-free.The study, ‘Persistent Symptoms in Patients After Acute Covid-19’, concludes that clinicians and researchers have focused on the acute phase of the disease, but continued monitoring after discharge for long-lasting effects is needed.
In the waning phase of the pandemic in Italy, beginning on April 21, the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS in Rome established a post-outpatient service for individuals discharged from the hospital after recovery.All patients who met the World Health Organisation criteria for discontinuation of quarantine (no fever for three consecutive days, improvement in other symptoms and two negative test results) were followed up. From April 21 to May 29, 179 patients aged between 19 and 84 years were potentially eligible for the follow-up post-acute care assessment, of which 53 (37%) were women.
During hospitalization, 72.7 per cent participants had evidence of interstitial pneumonia. The mean length of hospital stay was 13.5 days; 21 patients (15%) received non-invasive ventilation and 7 (5%) received invasive ventilation.“Patients were assessed a mean of 60.3 days after onset of the first symptom; at the time of the evaluation, only 18 (12.6%) were completely free of any Covid-19 related symptom, while 32 per cent had one or two symptoms and 55 per cent had three or more,” says the study published on July 9. No patient, however, had fever or any signs or symptoms of acute illness, it added.The study further shows worsened quality of life was observed among 44.1 per cent of patients and a high proportion of individuals still reported fatigue (53.1%), dyspnea (43.4%), joint pain, (27.3%) and chest pain (21.7%).