Long covid in the USA. What are the 3 Common symptoms?
Post-Acute Sequelae SARS-CoV-2 infection" (PASC).
In the USA, In 2020, nine of the top ten causes of death remained the same as they were in 2019. Heart disease was the major cause, followed by cancer.
COVID-19, which was added as a cause of death in 2020, has risen to become the third-highest cause of mortality.
Evidence grew that the Covid-19 wave, led by the Omicron variety, is fading in the United States, as a drop in cases and hospitalizations persisted over the weekend and deaths from the disease appear to have stopped rising, According to WSJ.
Nearly 50% of the people are affected by long covid worldwide. Percentage Numbers vary among Men, women, children, and the elderly. The sars-coV-2 virus epidemic has a huge effect on people around the world.
What is a long covid?
Patients with COVID-19 recover within a few weeks, some people develop post-COVID symptoms.
Post-COVID conditions are a variety of new, returning, or persistent health problems that can occur four or more weeks after being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.
Even patients who did not exhibit COVID-19 symptoms in the days or weeks following infection can develop post-COVID problems. For varying lengths of time, these diseases might manifest as various sorts and combinations of health problems.
These post-COVID symptoms may also be referred to as long COVID, long-haul COVID, post-acute COVID-19, long-term COVID effects, or chronic COVID.
The experts gave a new name for this, “post-acute sequelae SARS-CoV-2 infection” (PASC).
What are the symptoms of long covid?
Long covid symptoms:
According to WHO, 3 most common symptoms have been found among the long covid patients,
- Shortness of breath.
- Cognitive dysfunction (brain fog) and
- Fatigue
along with these symptoms, long covid patients reported more than 200 symptoms. They were experiencing the symptoms like,
- Chest pain
- Troubled speaking
- Anxiety or depression
- Muscle aches
- Fever
- loss of smell and
- Loss of taste
It’s quite a lot of symptoms, vary with patients related to their other medical conditions.
CDC reported a few more long covid common symptoms,
- Cough
- Headache
- Stomach pain
- pounding heart
- Diarrhea
- Sleep problems
- Lightheadedness
- Rash
- Mood change
- Changes in Menstrual cycles.
What is the long covid recovery time?
What is the long covid recovery time?
Depending on how long you have had the symptoms, it might be referred to as one of two things:
1. Ongoing Symptamatic Covid
This is when your symptoms last for more than four weeks. If your symptoms persist for more than 12 weeks, you will be diagnosed with;
2. Post-COVID Syndrome
This is when your symptoms persist for more than 12 weeks and are not explained by any other condition.
WHO reported that some patients with Long covid conditions were remained up to 6 months and few reported the conditions up to 9 months.
So the exact period of long covid is still unclear and still more studies are needed.
Long covid has Multi-organ effects
Some patients who experienced severe COVID-19 disease develop multiorgan effects or autoimmune problems over a longer time, with symptoms extending weeks or months following the illness.
According to research, Many, if not all, body systems, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, skin, and brain, can be affected by multiorgan effects.
Autoimmune disorders occur when your immune system mistakenly assaults healthy cells in your body, resulting in inflammation (swelling) or tissue damage in the affected areas.
What is the treatment for long covid?
Long covid has multi-organ damage effects like Neurological,
Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Mental health symptoms, patients may need multidisciplinary treatment required.
This means, with regular covid treatment the patients need other specialty treatments like,
- Cardiology
- Neurology
- Psychology
- Pulmonology
all mixed together or other treatments may be added according to the symptoms and other conditions of the patients.
What do Researches say reason for Long covid?
4 Factors may increase chances of long covid
A recent study finds that 4 factors may increase the chances of your long covid.
The researchers stated that they discovered a link between these characteristics and protracted Covid (also known as post-acute sequelae of Covid-19, or PASC), regardless of whether the initial infection was severe or moderate.
They speculated that the findings could point to approaches to prevent or treat some cases of extended Covid, such as giving people antiviral drugs immediately after an infection is confirmed.
One of the four factors identified by the researchers is the level of coronavirus RNA in the blood early in the illness, which serves as an indicator of viral load. Another factor is the development of autoantibodies, which are antibodies that wrongly attack body tissues in illnesses such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. A third cause is the reactivation of the Epstein-Barr virus, which infects the majority of people, frequently while they are young, and then becomes dormant.
The final predictor is having Type 2 diabetes, though the researchers and other experts say that in larger-scale investigations, it may be discovered that diabetes is merely one of several medical disorders that raise the chance of extended Covid.
Another study by NIH on long Covid theory involves looking into possibilities related to viral persistence, the virus can stay in the body and brain for up to 230 days after acute infection, and its genetic material can persist for up to 230 days after symptoms appear.
The lingering virus is frequently identified in tissues rather than the blood, which is a relevant aspect for researchers studying and developing diagnostic techniques for long Covid. It’s unclear what these so-called “viral reservoirs” perform in the body.
Vaccines and Long COVID
As scientists study the origins and symptoms of extended COVID, a large study in the United Kingdom looked at data on more than 1.2 million partially or completely vaccinated people.
It discovered that patients who had received both doses of COVID-19 vaccines, such as those manufactured by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and Oxford/AstraZeneca, had a nearly 50% decreased risk of developing COVID symptoms at least 28 days after infection.
The study excluded participants who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine, which is not commonly used in the United Kingdom.
How long my COVID recovery will take?
Everyone’s recuperation time is different. The time of your recovery is not always tied to the severity of your initial illness or if you were admitted to the hospital.
If you experience new or persistent symptoms that cause you concern, you should always seek medical advice and help.
How to prevent yourself from Long covid?
Preventing COVID-19 sickness is the greatest strategy to avoid post-COVID conditions.
Don’t get affected with sars-coV-virus that’s the best way to not get caught of long covid symptoms.
Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible is the greatest approach to prevent getting COVID-19 and can also help protect those around you. And other ways to protect Sars-coV-2 viruses are;
- Wear High protective Masks
- Maintain social distancing
- Avoid crowds
- Avoid poorly ventilated indoors
- Wash your hands often or use sanitizer
- Have immune-boosting foods
- Get enough sleep.
Get vaccinated, Vaccines fight well against covid-19 variants.
