COVID Archives - Page 3 of 11 - First Washington News

March 20, 2022

Study examines the effect of long COVID on lung health

Aerial shot of someone walking down some stairs wearing a mask — A recent study looks at COVID-19’s long-term effect on lung health. Westend61/Getty Images

A recent study, which appears in the journal Radiology, examined the effect of long COVID on the lungs and found potential long-term effects on lung function.
The researchers found evidence of small airway disease on chest scans in people who had persistent symptoms after SARS-COV-2 infection, regardless of infection severity.
Longer-term follow-up is necessary to determine the lasting clinical consequences of the findings.

People with COVID-19 often experience various symptoms depending on the severity of their illness. Symptoms appear 2–14 days after exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and last 1–4 weeks on average.

It has been difficult to estimate the prevalence of long-term symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection, partly because diagnostic criteria remain unclear.

However, last year, the Office for National Statistics published data suggesting that long-term symptoms occur in 7–18{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of people who experienced symptomatic COVID-19.

These long-term effects after COVID-19 are known as long COVID or post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC).

PASC can range from mild to debilitating, with new symptoms arising or evolving long after the initial infection.

Dr. Brett M. Elicker, M.D., a clinical professor in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco, discusses radiology findings in an editorial that accompanies the recent research.

Dr. Elicker explains that the long-term effects of viral pneumonia depend on the direct injury that the virus causes and the body’s immune reaction to the virus. Damage to the lungs occurs in two patterns:

Constrictive bronchiolitis, or small airway disease: Inflammation within the bronchioles — the small airways — and surrounding areas results in airway narrowing due to scarring or fibrosis.
Diffuse alveolar damage (DAD): Fibrosis to the alveoli — tiny balloon-shaped structures at the end of the bronchioles that exchange gas in the lungs — which may improve over time, but often some scarring remains.

He was responding to a study that used CT scans to image the lungs of people with persistent symptoms following confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The scans showed air trapping, which indicates small airway disease.

Air trapping refers to pockets of air that become trapped in the lung after breathing out. In other words, they prevent the individual from exhaling completely. Air trapping is common in conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.

CT scans of people who have experienced COVID-19 also indicate ground glass opacity (GGO), suggesting DAD.

Researchers from the University of Iowa recently conducted a study to understand the long-term effects of COVID-19 on lung function. They published their findings in the journal Radiology.

The study enrolled 100 adults with a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who remained symptomatic for more than 30 days following the diagnosis, with a control group of 106 healthy participants.

In all, 67{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of participants with PASC had not needed hospitalization for COVID-19 — the authors refer to these participants as ambulatory. Additionally, 17{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} required hospitalization, and 16{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} needed intensive care during the initial infection.

The most common persistent PASC symptoms were:

shortness of breath (73{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809})
fatigue (56{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809})
cough (34{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809})

Alongside a chest CT scan, the researchers performed several pulmonary function tests to measure how well the lungs worked. These tests included:

Forced vital capacity (FVC): The total volume of air a person exhales during maximal exhalation.
Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1): The volume of air an individual exhales after a maximal inhalation in 1 second.
FEV1/FVC: The proportion of FVC a person exhales in 1 second.
Total lung capacity (TLC): The volume of air in the lungs at maximal inflation.
Residual volume (RV): The volume of air in the lungs after exhaling maximally.
Diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO): This indicates how efficiently oxygen gets into the blood from the air.

The study found that participants in the hospitalized and ICU groups had significantly lower FVC, FEV1, TLC, and DLCO than those in the ambulatory group. The ambulatory group’s FVC, FEV1, and RV were similar to the healthy control group.

Participants received a chest CT scan within a median of 75 days from diagnosis.

The average percentage of the total lung that air trapping affected was significantly higher in the ambulatory (25.4{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}), hospitalized (34.6{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}), and ICU (27.3{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}) than the healthy controls (7.2{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}).

Also, the average percentage of the total lung with GGO was significantly higher in the hospitalized (13.2{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}) and ICU groups (28.7{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}) than the ambulatory group (3.7{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}), but higher in the ambulatory group than the healthy controls (0.06{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}).

Dr. Alejandro P. Comellas, M.D., senior author and professor of internal medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and the Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, spoke with Medical News Today.

He stated that the strengths of the trial were its design and inclusion of only nonvaccinated participants, which reduced confounding effects.

However, it was a small single-center trial that involved only the initial SARS-CoV-2 variant, limiting the generalizability of results to subsequent variants.

Dr. Comellas stated, “The results provide evidence, quantitatively and qualitatively, of airway damage many months after the initial SARS CoV-2 infection, including patients who were initially treated in the ambulatory setting.”

“Despite expected pulmonary functions tests in the ambulatory patients,” Dr. Comellas continued, “30{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of their lungs had evidence of small airway disease.” As he explained, for some of the participants, this was more than 6 months after the initial infection.

In the companion editorial, Dr. Elicker elaborates:

“This paper suggests that airway obstruction and post-organizational pneumonia [or] DAD fibrosis contribute to persistent symptoms after [SARS-CoV-2] infection with the contribution of airways disease higher in the outpatients, and the contribution of OP [or] DAD greater in the patients admitted to ICU.”

“Longer-term studies assessing the clinical and imaging manifestations 1–2 years after the initial infection are needed to fully ascertain the permanent manifestations of post-COVID fibrosis.”

March 8, 2022

Florida says healthy kids shouldn’t get COVID vaccine, contradicting CDC

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of Health is poised to officially recommend against giving coronavirus vaccines to healthy children.

Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo made the pronouncement at a Monday roundtable discussion on coronavirus mitigations policies moderated by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Ladapo, who leads Florida’s Department of Health, said his department’s recommendation would be the first of its kind in the country. It wasn’t clear what age groups would fall under the recommendation, and neither the governor’s office nor the Department of Health released a copy of the new guidelines or responded to an email as of 5:30 p.m. Monday requesting more information.

The announcement came after a 90-minute discussion among 10 doctors and researchers who rejected the benefits of various coronavirus mitigation measures such as vaccine mandates, mask requirements and business and school closures, saying instead those policies only caused harm.

“I think what Florida’s guidance reflects is the latest research,” DeSantis told reporters at a news conference at Plant City later in the day. He said healthy kids are at low risk for the virus and that he’s seen studies showing there’s “very little benefit” for them.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages five and older. That agency recommends vaccinating children. Vaccines for children younger than 5 have not yet been approved.

Although older people are far more likely to die from the virus than children, the CDC website notes COVID-19 is one of the top 10 causes of death for children aged 5 to 11.

More than 804,000 Florida children younger than 16 have contracted the coronavirus, according to Florida Department of Health data. Forty-two of those children died. About 373,000 Florida children ages five to 11 have gotten at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. That’s about 22 percent of the state’s five to 11 population.

Related: Global COVID deaths surpasses 6 million in pandemic’s third year

The panel event was billed as “The Curtain Close on COVID Theater,” and was held in a professionally lit studio in West Palm Beach with 10 guest speakers, including doctors and researchers from around the country. Among them were three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, a highly controversial document that recommended against lockdowns because of what they said were “devastating” public health consequences.

On a floor-to-ceiling screen behind the panelists were square tiles with video feeds of attendees, many of whom were staffers at various government agencies in the DeSantis administration, including the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Economic Opportunity, the Department of Juvenile Justice and others.

Panelists touched on several themes championed by DeSantis, including what speakers called the “censorship” of doctors who dissent from the mainstream coronavirus guidance. Some accused the CDC and other government agencies of becoming politicized or of working with media outlets to buy “surreptitious advertising” promoting vaccines.

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Robert Malone, a vaccine researcher who has become a vocal proponent of the anti-vaccine movement during the pandemic, said the “deep state” has kept doctors from using “repurposed drugs” like hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. Numerous studies have found that drug has no clinical benefit in fighting the virus.

Multiple panelists said that a large portion of school children have already been infected with COVID-19, and said that natural immunity is one strong reason for kids not to need vaccines.

One panelist, a California doctor named Tracy Beth Høeg, talked about a study that she authored on the risks of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, after some people, especially boys, received coronavirus vaccines.

“Even for boys who are previously healthy who haven’t been previously infected, we didn’t find that there was a benefit (to getting vaccinated), there was actually overall risk of giving them the second dose,” she said.

Høeg’s study has not been peer-reviewed, and PolitiFact reported that flawed data and potential conflicts of interest may have impacted the researchers’ findings.

Notably, hospitalization rates were calculated from January to July 2021, prior to the delta and omicron waves in much of the country. The delta and omicron variants pose more risk to children than previous variants.

Another speaker, Joseph Fraiman, an emergency room doctor in Louisiana, said the “severe” side-effects of the vaccines compared to the mild symptoms caused by the coronavirus in children means there’s no “clear benefit.”

“If you have a healthy child, the chances of that child dying are incredibly low, essentially close to zero if not actually zero,” he said. Fraiman then bashed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for not doing enough research on the coronavirus vaccine, saying it’s left a vacuum of information.

“We have no idea if vaccines reduce transmission in kids or in adults,” he said.

The White House responded to Ladapo’s announcement during a media briefing later Monday afternoon.

“It’s deeply disturbing that there are politicians peddling conspiracy theories out there and casting doubt on vaccinations when it is our best tool against the virus and the best tool to prevent even teenagers from being hospitalized,” press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Sonja Rasmussen, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at the University of Florida, said in an interview that she did not support the state’s recommendation. She noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends COVID-19 vaccines for eligible children and adolescents 5 years of age or older.

“Children are at lower risk than adults but they’re certainly not at no risk,” Rasmussen said. “We have a safe and effective vaccine with a very low risk of adverse outcomes.”

Rasmussen noted that children have not been immune to hospitalization from COVID-19, and many have experienced so-called “long COVID.” The CDC has found that unvaccinated 12-to-17-year-olds are more than twice as likely to have been hospitalized from COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated.

And a 2020 survey from the United Kingdom Office of National Statistics estimated more than 1 in 10 children experience COVID symptoms 5 weeks after infection.

Rasmussen disputed the panelists’ contentions related to the safety of the vaccines. For example, she pointed to a December study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that showed that the risk of myocarditis in children is relatively low — 70 cases per million vaccine doses in boys aged 12 to 15. Those cases of myocarditis were largely milder than instances of that heart condition brought on by viruses like COVID-19, the study noted.

She noted that much about the virus remains uncertain. For example, it’s unclear how long the vaccines offer peak protection. Kids may need boosters at some point, Rasmussen said.

But Rasmussen said the vaccines are safe and effective. If parents have questions, they should consult their family doctor, she said.

Ladapo and the other panelists on Monday derided the experts and government officials that have pushed for vaccine mandates and closures, even in the early days of the pandemic.

“I still remember very clearly when people were telling us, including a lot of people with a lot of degrees (who) were telling us, ‘15 days to stop the spread,’ ” Ladapo said, referencing the Trump administration’s campaign in March 2020 encouraging people who were medically vulnerable or who felt sick to stay home to combat the coronavirus. “These people had no idea what they were talking about.”

He said now, people in power “want us to forget that their choices that they made for everyone were the wrong choices that basically led to no appreciable benefit.”

Times staff writers Ian Hodgson and Romy Ellenbogen, as well as Miami Herald Washington reporter Bryan Lowry, contributed to this report.

March 4, 2022

Covid Live Updates: U.S. to Offer Covid-Fighting Tech to Other Nations

Credit score…Alex Welsh for The New York Times

Los Angeles County will lift virtually all of its indoor mask and vaccine verification prerequisites, nearby officials announced on Thursday.

Starting on Friday, masks will no extended be required in general public configurations like grocery stores, dining places and bars. And evidence of vaccination or adverse exam outcomes will no for a longer time be vital to enter indoor bars, wineries or most other corporations.

California state regulations still need evidence of vaccination or detrimental take a look at effects to enter big indoor occasions, as nicely as masks on transit and in other large-possibility options, together with hospitals.

Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the county’s community health director, cited new federal guidelines for measuring possibility in communities in her office’s final decision to get rid of restrictions quicker than expected. According to the Facilities for Sickness Regulate and Prevention’s up to date steps, she mentioned, Los Angeles County is in the very low-chance group.

Even now, Dr. Ferrer reported that masks ended up strongly advisable, and personal firms could decide to preserve in place necessities.

“Covid-19 is a lethal virus, and it is nonetheless with us — it ebbs and flows,” she claimed. “We require to acquire edge of the very good occasions we’re about to be in, exactly where we’re observing much a lot less danger throughout the board for so many, and be well prepared, ought to we see a new variant.”

Whilst the metropolis of Los Angeles will, for the time being, however need bars, places to eat and numerous other indoor businesses to look at vaccine status, the moment marks a significant symbolic milestone for Angelenos who have weathered some of the nation’s deadliest surges and have lived less than some of the nation’s most enduring limits.

Dr. Ferrer has been a unique voice of caution, even as her division has confronted annoyance from people who considered stringent policies were pointless.

In new months, while, Dr. Ferrer, alongside with other community health officials across the place, has shifted her emphasis toward measures to protect against surges, hospitalizations and deaths.

She claimed the county would go on to aid inhabitants get vaccinated, and that her section would continue to observe circumstance knowledge carefully to intervene ahead of outbreaks at educational institutions or firms spiral out of management. Dr. Ferrer emphasised that the county would work to make certain that all communities have equitable access to therapeutics for men and women who get ill with Covid-19.

On Monday, the governors of California, Oregon and Washington jointly declared that on March 12, they would raise statewide mask necessities in educational facilities, which had been some of the past remaining statewide constraints. And California officers lifted a mask mandate for unvaccinated people today in indoor community spaces on Tuesday.

February 19, 2022

Red Covid, an Update – The New York Times

Ocean County, in central New Jersey, is a mixture of seaside cities like Barnegat Gentle and exurban towns like Toms River and Lakewood. Household cash flow in the county exceeds the U.S. regular.

But Ocean County is between the minimum vaccinated destinations in the Northeast. Only 53 per cent of citizens have received at least two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine (or just one dose of Johnson & Johnson). Only 26 percent have acquired a booster shot.

The large range of unvaccinated residents in Ocean County has led to a horrific quantity of Covid health issues and dying. Virtually a person out of every 200 inhabitants has died from the virus. That is worse than the toll in Mississippi, the U.S. state with the largest amount of Covid death per capita, and even worse than in any place other than for Peru.

What clarifies the vaccine skepticism in Ocean County? Politics, over all. The county is intensely Republican. Donald Trump received it by almost 30 percentage factors in 2020, and numerous Republicans — which include those people who are older than 65 and vulnerable to serious Covid health issues — are skeptical of the vaccines.

This partisan divide has led to the “red Covid” phenomenon that I have explained in previous newsletters. Nowadays, I have an update.

Blue, then crimson

Initial, some history: In the pandemic’s original months, Covid circumstances and fatalities were larger in Democratic places, almost certainly for the reason that they are property to quite a few important worldwide airports. The virus entered this place on the West Coastline and in the Northeast. But it did not stay there. By the close of Covid’s initial year in the U.S., the virus had swept throughout the region, and there was no significant partisan divide in fatalities.

Only immediately after the vaccines turned extensively accessible, in early 2021 — and liberals were a lot far more prepared to get pictures than conservatives — did Covid grow to be a disproportionately Republican disease. By the summer of 2021, the gap was soaring:

As the chart helps make crystal clear, the toll has been even even worse in counties wherever Trump received by a landslide than in counties that he gained narrowly.

This phenomenon is an illustration of how the country’s political polarization has warped people’s imagining, even when their private security is at stake. It is a tragedy — and a preventable one particular, way too.

A new study by four Harvard epidemiologists estimates that 135,000 unvaccinated Americans died unnecessarily in the previous 6 months of final yr. The Texas Tribune just lately profiled a younger unvaccinated pair: She spent 139 days in intensive treatment he requested, “Was this my fault?” They have each considering the fact that been vaccinated.

Normal immunity

There is 1 massive new progress. When I last wrote about red Covid, in November, I informed you that the month-to-month partisan mortality hole may well be peaking, for two key factors.

A person, the availability of hugely helpful submit-an infection solutions, like Pfizer’s Paxlovid, has been expanding if they cut down deaths, the drop may well be steepest the place the toll is best. Two, red The us has in all probability created up much more organic immunity to Covid — from prior bacterial infections — than blue The us, specified that many Democrats have tried using more durable to steer clear of having the virus.

Positive enough, the partisan gap in Covid deaths is no lengthier rising as fast it experienced been, as you can see from the new closeness between these strains:

All through the Omicron wave, fatalities have risen considerably less in crimson counties than in blue or purple counties. The most very likely rationalization appears to be to be that the amount of Trump voters vulnerable to extreme disease — which was nevertheless pretty massive before past calendar year — has declined, mainly because much more of them have created up some immunity to Covid from a preceding an infection.

But really do not make the blunder of baffling a hole that’s no lengthier rising as promptly as it was with a gap that is shrinking. The gap among pink and blue America — in conditions of cumulative Covid fatalities — is nevertheless rising. The crimson line in that next chart is higher than the blue line, which is a indication that extra Republicans than Democrats or independents have needlessly died of Covid in current weeks.

Yet another place to keep in mind: Even in deeply blue counties, an outsize number of fatalities are transpiring amongst persons who are unvaccinated or unboosted. The vaccines offer you outstanding security from a lethal virus, still numerous Individuals have chosen to depart on their own uncovered.

Connected: Vaccinating and boosting more aged people is probably the solitary best method for decreasing fatalities, The Atlantic’s Sarah Zhang writes. A single way to do so: Enhance Medicare payments to medical practitioners and hospitals that make development.

Virus developments:

California laid out a plan to deal with Covid as a workable risk that “will keep on being with us for some time, if not without end.”
This minute feels especially difficult for immunocompromised men and women. “It’s like living behind a veil.”

THE Most recent Information

Ukraine-Russia

The mood in style

In latest yrs, “a specific polite, very well-behaved-ness experienced become a defining characteristic of New York style,” Vanessa Friedman writes. This vogue 7 days, which wrapped on Wednesday, welcomed a a lot more “anarchic inventive vitality.”

Shayne Oliver’s three-working day extravaganza highlighted hundreds of straps and skin. “The point was considerably less the precise garments than the electricity they generated,” Friedman writes. “They were going someplace, and not just in circles.”

Other standout moments: Julia Fox opened the LaQuan Smith exhibit — new from her breakup with Kanye West — in a slinky cutout costume, and the groundbreaking Black supermodels Beverly Johnson and Veronica Webb glided down the ’80s-flavored Sergio Hudson runway. Telfar put on a “happening,” mixing branded Tv set assignments with manner.

So what does the new era of New York vogue glimpse like? Look to Eckhaus Latta, which held its demonstrate in an aged downtown Manhattan developing now scheduled for demolition. The show’s mood was celebratory pals and household walked the runway, and the clothes managed “a singular crafty intelligence that avoids simple categorization.” A poem was handed out: “The foreseeable future is people today strolling down the road laughing.” — Sanam Yar, a Morning author

The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was celibacy. Right here is today’s puzzle — or you can perform on the net.

Here’s today’s Wordle. (If you are apprehensive about your stats streak, play in the browser you have been employing.)

February 13, 2022

After Covid, risks of heart problems remain elevated for up to a year

As considerably as Michelle Wilson understood, she’d recovered from Covid-19.

Wilson, 65, contracted the virus in November 2020. Her disease, she reported, was delicate, and she was experience ready to go back to perform as a nurse in St. Louis by early December.

Comprehensive coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

That is when her heart troubles started.

“I virtually woke up a person morning, and my heart was racing and beating erratically,” Wilson recalled. “I was acquiring intensive chest agony.”

Fortunately, Wilson was not acquiring a coronary heart attack. But she did acquire long-expression heart problems, which include higher blood tension, placing her at chance for further cardiovascular issues.

Inspite of her age, she experienced no prior clinical record to counsel she was at threat for heart disease — other than Covid-19.

Without a doubt, it appears the coronavirus can go away clients at threat for coronary heart challenges for at the very least a single yr pursuing infection, in accordance to a person of the largest analyses of post-Covid well being results to date.

The research, released final week in Mother nature Drugs, uncovered that the illness amplified the possibility of heart rhythm irregularities, as nicely as likely fatal blood clots in the legs and lungs, in the year just after an acute infection.

Covid also enhanced the chance for heart failure by 72 per cent, coronary heart attack by 63 {cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} and stroke by 52 per cent — even between individuals, like Wilson, whose first health problems ended up gentle.

The study’s lead creator, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington College in St. Louis, explained he and his colleagues envisioned to see some elevation in heart challenges subsequent Covid, but assumed it would be constrained mainly to persons whose overall health was not sturdy formerly.

The elevated chance remained when scientists accounted for age and race, he stated.

“It was a bit of a moment for us when we realized it was apparent in all of these subgroups,” Al-Aly said, “such as younger grownups, more mature grown ups, Black people today, white people today, persons with being overweight and people with out.”

“The possibility was everywhere you go,” he reported.

Al-Aly’s crew examined the prices of new heart challenges amid 153,760 Covid sufferers for up to a calendar year next their disease. The contributors have been people who’d sought treatment within the Office of Veterans Affairs, and most had been white males.

Cardiovascular results were when compared to two control teams: 5.6 million individuals without having Covid, and one more 5.9 million patients whose data was gathered just before the pandemic commenced.

Covid-19 individuals in this examine were contaminated ahead of vaccines had been accessible, so it is unclear how the photographs could alter the findings.

But medical professionals on the entrance strains of treating Covid and its effects suspect vaccinations do reduce heart dangers due to the fact they lessen Covid bacterial infections in basic.

“I have taken care of people with coronary heart challenges” following Covid-19 infection, stated Dr. Steve Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. “The huge the vast majority are unvaccinated.”

Down load the NBC News app for whole coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

That Covid-19 seems to enhance very long-phrase pitfalls of cardiovascular troubles is not stunning to health professionals. Other viruses, this sort of as influenza and selected enteroviruses, have lengthy been known to carry the identical pitfalls.

“Any person who is hospitalized with any form of pneumonia that they receive in the local community has these challenges for six to 12 months,” claimed Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, president of the American Heart Affiliation. “The open dilemma for me is, is this a thing unique about Covid? Or is this the exact same tale we by now know?”

Covid’s coronary heart pitfalls may be demonstrating up with extra regularity just since the virus unfold so rapidly.

“It can be extremely regarding since so lots of men and women will be having Covid in the following even so a lot of a long time, and so lots of have currently gotten it,” stated Dr. Jennifer Haythe, co-director of the Women’s Middle for Cardiovascular Health and fitness at the Columbia University Irving Medical Centre in New York. “This may definitely enhance the burden of cardiovascular condition across the board.”

Al-Aly’s investigate is not the very first to counsel lengthy-term coronary heart threats subsequent Covid-19.

A examine of recovered Covid people in Germany uncovered that 78 {cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of individuals experienced heart abnormalities. Swedish investigation, way too, found an elevated risk of coronary heart attack and stroke subsequent Covid-19.

It is not solely crystal clear how Covid could result in heart difficulties above the very long time period, nevertheless it is recognised that the virus can have an effect on blood vessels all more than the entire body and in multiple organs, which include the heart.

For Wilson, the irregular heartbeat has endured.

She has experienced to rest just about upright for months.

“It obtained so undesirable that when I laid down, I couldn’t rest mainly because my coronary heart was so erratic,” she mentioned.

Her physicians are now monitoring her for any indicator of heart failure.

Regardless of infection, the pandemic by itself is also upping the chance of coronary heart wellness issues.

“Too lots of patients are delaying getting back into their regimen in just the well being care process,” Lloyd-Jones reported. “We have witnessed marked raises in overall blood pressure degrees, weight get, worsening command of diabetes, and all of those people issues are contributing to greater possibility.”

Any one whose Covid recovery stalls, or who ordeals a sudden onset of new signs, these types of as upper body soreness, powerful muscle mass weak spot or shortness of breath, should call 911 straight away, Lloyd-Jones claimed.

All those usually are not just pink flags, he explained. “These are flashing lights.”

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February 11, 2022

What UK cases tell us about long COVID

Commuters wearing face masks against COVID-19 queue and wait to get on the London underground — According to government data, the number of people with long COVID in the United Kingdom has been rising since July. Hollie Adams/Getty Images

According to the latest estimates, 2.1{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the U.K. population, or 1 in 48 people, had long COVID.
The analysis showed that over half a million people have been experiencing lingering symptoms for at least a year.
Previous estimates showed that between 10-30{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of people with COVID-19 developed long COVID.
Although the number of people with COVID-19 is rising due to Omicron, the number of people reporting long COVID symptoms is not, which could mean vaccines are conferring protection.

As scientists discover more about long COVID — an array of symptoms that linger weeks and months after the initial infection has passed — governments have started to produce more reliable estimates.

The latest data, published on February 3, comes from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in the U.K. and shows that around 1.3 million people reported having long COVID between December 2021 and January 2022.

The figure shows an increasing trend from previous months — 1.27 million at the beginning of December and 945,000 in early July.

Updates are expected to follow, but until then, here is a breakdown of what the analysis found:

According to ONS data collected from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey (CIS), 1.33 million people were experiencing symptoms post-infection

Furthermore, 836,000 people, almost two-thirds of those surveyed, said these symptoms limited their daily activities.

Dr. Donald J. Alcendor, associate professor of microbiology, immunology, and physiology at Meharry Medical College, and associate professor adjunct at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, both in Nashville, TN, said the figure was surprising, as it was higher than expected for the U.K.

However, he pointed out that the nature of self-reporting could have likely skewed the results and that the duration of the symptoms would vary from one person to the next.

“[T]he diagnosis of post-COVID syndrome is not an exact science and is still controversial. Diagnosis is largely based on testing and the duration of symptoms that are mainly self-reported,” he told Medical News Today.

The most common long COVID symptoms that people reported were:

fatigue
shortness of breath
loss of smell
loss of taste

Although cognitive symptoms were not among the most common symptoms for this data set, they are also increasingly rising, added Dr. Alcendor.

Commenting on fatigue, in particular, Dr. Tutku Taşkınoğlu, clinical microbiologist and the head of the molecular biology unit at Düzen Laboratories in Turkey, told Medical News Today that it was common for some diseases to be triggered after viral infections.

“These include chronic fatigue syndrome, or myalgic encephalomyelitis, and a blood circulation disorder called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and this risk was higher [after COVID-19] than after the flu,” she said.

Dr. Taşkınoğlu underscored the importance of listening to people and that even symptoms as simple or inconspicuous as mild fatigue could be important for diagnosis.

Who is most affected by long COVID?

The data found that the prevalence of long COVID was greatest in people 35–69 years.

It also found that females, people living in low-income areas, and those with a health condition or disability that limits their ability to exercise were also more likely to report having long COVID.

Dr. Taşkınoğlu said that she has also observed a difference in long COVID symptoms reported by different groups. For females and younger people, persistent headaches, abdominal symptoms, and anxiety are more common, while males and those over 65 report breathing difficulties and cognitive impairments more often.

The professions that produced the highest number of people with long COVID were social care, teaching and education, and healthcare.

Dr. Alcendor pointed out that the professions most affected by long COVID involved a lot of direct, person-to-person contact and had a higher risk of exposure.

“These jobs may involve transmissions with higher viral loads because of little or no social distancing and prolonged exposure to a person [with the virus],” he said.

He also underscored that it was not surprising to see individuals with poor social determinants on the list.

“[L]imited access to healthcare services and underlying comorbidities that go unmanaged put them at high risk for the most severe outcomes of COVID-19. We must remember that long-COVID can be mild in some people and life-changing for others,” he explained.

As the analysis focuses on self-reported long COVID, many experts are skeptical about the results.

“Self-reporting would certainly skew the results. Documentation of infection via diagnosis after testing positive and then negative is important because COVID-19 clinical presentations can vary from one person to the other and must undergo differential diagnosis to rule [out] other conditions such as a cold, flu, chronic fatigue, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), or reinfection (breakthrough infection/post immune infection),” explained Dr. Alcendor.

One challenge in diagnosing and treating undiagnosed long COVID cases will be determining how many people have had COVID-19.

Dr. Alcendor elaborated:

“Monitoring exposure at the community level using antigen testing could provide us with insights as to how many people [had contracted the virus] and not officially diagnosed with COVID-19.”

There is also the issue of diagnosing long COVID in children. Many estimates leave that data out.

In the U.K., the first “consistent” research definition for long COVID in kids and young people was only formally agreed on Feb. 8, 2022.

Dr. Alcendor said estimates in the United States were that between 10{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} and 30{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of people who get COVID-19 could develop long COVID.

Comparatively, he said the rate in the U.S. was much higher than the figure reported for the U.K.

“This could be related to awareness, vaccination, reporting, diagnosis, and the rate of infection in the U.S. compared to the U.K.,” he explained.

Dr. Taşkınoğlu said there was no clear picture about long COVID incidence in Turkey yet.

“It is not yet known exactly what percentage of people will have these symptoms months after [having acute] COVID-19,” she said.

She added that when factoring in the number of COVID-19 cases in a country, especially in places where numbers are rising like Turkey or the U.S., even 5{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} would mean a lot of people will be affected.

On a global level, one pre-print study estimated that around 43{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of COVID-19 survivors either had or are still experiencing long-term effects after recovering from the disease.

Dr. Taşkınoğlu said that no matter what variant caused COVID-19, it could possibly lead to long COVID. She said with only 4 months into the Omicron wave, it was difficult to say what would happen in the long term.

“According to the data so far, there is no difference between Delta, Beta, or Omicron for long COVID symptoms. But most likely, the incidence of long COVID will be lower, as Omicron does not make a permanent change in the inflammatory process in the body during COVID-19 infection,” she said.

However, she pointed out one caveat with that way of thinking:

“Even if the incidence of long COVID decreases to 2-3{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of cases, as the number of cases is high, the number of people experiencing long COVID will increase [proportionately],” she added.

Although reports so far suggest less severe disease in individuals who get COVID-19 with Omicron, experts reiterate that this severity can vary between people and produce fatal outcomes in individuals with underlying illnesses.

“Therefore, we may see an increase in long COVID in targeted populations with more severe diseases,” said Dr. Alcendor.

“[This will be] due to many [people contracting the virus] and the likely increase in breakthrough infections, especially among underserved populations with poor social determinants of health,” he said.

Dr. Alcendor said he expects long COVID to have more of an impact on people who experienced symptoms of COVID-19 and/or those who were in the hospital.

Dr. Taşkınoğlu agreed: “The U.K. analysis shows that the risk [of long COVID] is much lower for those who are not hospitalized.”

“The greatest impact [of long COVID] will likely be among [unvaccinated people] that acquire a primary COVID-19 infection. It is clear that being completely vaccinated for COVID-19 offers some level of protection against Omicron and will reduce the likelihood of developing long COVID if you have a breakthrough infection.”

– Dr. Donald J. Alcendor

Studies have also shown that vaccination reduced the risk of long COVID.

“[They do so] by lowering the chances of contracting COVID-19 initially. Vaccinations have also been beneficial to some in that the development of a more robust immune response may complete viral clearance from a person’s system and will allow them to recover,” said Dr. Alcendor.

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