Even a year after they became ill, about half of patients hospitalized with MERS still had long-term consequences. This says a new study of the first cases in Wuhan.
So the authors of the Chinese study, which appeared Friday in “The Lancet,” called for better consideration of the long-term effects of the disease. One in three patients still had shortness of breath even after a year.
According to the study, the patients who were in the intensive care unit with an acute course of the disease, the proportion of people with long-term effects is higher. The researchers used the medical records of about 1,300 patients treated at a hospital in the Chinese city of Wuhan between January and May 2020, where the virus was first detected.
Health systems face new challenges
For the study, data were collected six months and twelve months after the end of treatment. According to this, the proportion of patients with at least one symptom or secondary disease was 68 percent after six months and 49 percent after one year. The proportion of patients with anxiety and depression increased slightly from 23 to 26 percent.
Despite the long-term effects, the researchers found that the vast majority of 88 percent returned to work a year after their illness. However, health systems must be prepared to provide long-term support to COVID-19 patients. (SDA)
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