With vaccine manufacturing delays, mutant variants and continuous breaches in hotel quarantine the pandemic has dug its claws in and shows no sign of going away.
And the long-term symptoms and effects of COVID-19 seem similarly stubborn. Referred to as “long-COVID-19”, the effects on recovered patients’ mental and physical wellbeing are only just starting to be understood.
While just 10-15% of COVID patients have developed severe disease, 80% developed long-term symptoms. More than 50 long-term effects have been studied. They have affected not just those who were hospitalised but also young, healthy people who only had mild symptoms.
Neurological issues
The most widely reported long-term symptom is fatigue. More than half of recovered patients reported feeling fatigue months after infection, and 44% reported headaches. Nearly a third developed an attention disorder, and 21% struggled to sleep.
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A recent Australian study found that 40% of recovered COVID-19 patients still had symptoms 69 days after diagnoses — mostly fatigue, shortness of breath and chest tightness.
A follow-up study of patients in Wuhan six months after they were infected had similar findings, with fatigue or muscle weakness present in 63%, sleep difficulties in 26% and anxiety or depression in 23%.
Scientists worry this could develop into chronic fatigue syndrome, characterised by severe incapacitating fatigue, pain, neurocognitive disability, poor sleep and a poorly functioning nervous system.
A study published this week found that one in three COVID patients who had to be put on a ventilator exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Patients with more severe respiratory problems were more likely to develop PTSD symptoms — although this is unique.
Another study found COVID-19 can infect brain cells, causing brain damage in mice and lab-grown human brain cells. So far brain damage has not been found in living patients.
One of the most concerning outcomes of the 2009 SARS pandemic was the way it affected survivors’ mental health. One study found that more than 40% had an active psychiatric illness. Another 40.3% reported a chronic fatigue problem. There were also high levels of depression, anxiety and PTSD.
Organ damage
The virus can enter organs by gaining access through the ACE2 and TMPRSS2 enzymes — which means it can travel easily across the body and enter multiple organ systems.
It’s pretty common for viral infections to cause some organ inflammation — but what’s unusual is that the inflammation isn’t going away when people stop testing positive for COVID-19. One small German study found 60% of patients who had recently recovered still had inflammation of the middle layer of their heart wall, independent of pre-existing conditions and how severe their infection was.
Another study found almost 20% of COVID patients developed cardiac injury.
In another study, which measured mostly healthy patients about four-and-a-half months after recovery, two-thirds of people were found to have impairment in at least one organ system. A quarter had multiple organ systems affected.
The most common impairment was in the lungs and heart at 33% and 32%, followed by the pancreas, kidneys, liver and spleen.
Thankfully it seems heart and lung injury can be reversed with proper follow-up care and rehabilitation.
Worryingly, one study in the New England Journal of Medicine found COVID-19 could not only worsen the effects of diabetes for those who already have it — it could even lead to people developing the disease. The virus that causes COVID binds to receptors in pancreatic beta cells, adipose tissue, the small intestine and the kidneys and could affect the way sugar is metabolised.
Compromised immune system
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have also found evidence of cellular immune dysregulation: immune cells were becoming less effective and exhausted from being activated so long fighting the virus, even after the patient no longer tested positive.
Importantly this was found both in those hospitalised and those who weren’t. The number of cells affected increased over time, and researchers are trying to find out whether these changes are linked to long-term symptoms. The still-stimulated cells could be the reason people experience symptoms long after recovery.
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Thanks for that useful (but bloody terrifying) article Amber.
It makes the snail’s pace of the vaccine rollout even more frustrating.
Agreed. Amber – is the 80% referring to those hospitalised or to all people who have had covid. If so, that’s pretty scary. I’d be interested to know if the pattern is consistent across all countries and if countries with high infection rates have worse outcomes (ie: less able to get treatment when or as soon as it is needed, etc.)
Nice fear dynamic. The neurological issue may be in the subject matter of the article.
The sad part is that about 4% of the Australian population subscribe to the denial conspiracy theory regarding Covid19.
I am yet to hear from friends who work in ICU’s that the dying in Australia are still in denial whereas in the US it has been reported that the last breathes of people have been “This can’t be happening, Covid19 is a hoax”.
The reason that most states of Australia has been trying as hard as they can to limit Covid19 infections is because the research published out of St Vincent’s Sydney is that 40% of people who have been infected mostly with very mild symptoms are permanently damaged.
The smaller the number of infections the less the longitudinal costs we the community will have to bear.
Simple really and the BS about herd immunity was just that.
Other viral infections also have long and debilitating after-effects. A question we will be able to answer soon is the extent to which any of the vaccinations are effective against long covid. Is it not possible that a vaccination may prevent the immediate symptoms of the disease, but not the lasting ones?
Is it not also worth looking at the lasting effects on children who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but had no symptoms of COVID-19?
The small amount of data regarding children below the age of puberty shows that the few who tested positive but displayed no symptoms and did not transmit the disease do not seem to have any long covid problems reported, yet.
I am deliberately ignoring the children who present with Kawasaki disease and went on to develop a form of sepsis as I do not have any numbers or data on this phenomena.
There is a suggestion which says that because children below the age of puberty lack one of the two enzymes required for the SARS2 CoV19 to fully colonize the host, the damage does not appear to be long term and their ability to transmit the virus is also blunted if not totally prevented.
Children over the age of puberty seem to have a reduced infection rate to those who are adults, however, I do not think that I have seen anything researched and published on this.
The long Covid effect has not been researched at this time as the vaccinations currently in use have been given approval as an emergency measure to slow the pandemic and the data is not yet being collected.
It is easy to make demands when Australia is basically Covid19 free, however, we do have the advantage of watching from a high spot and observing the results.
My money is on the UK government pandering to their extreme right which mostly consists of science deniers and undoing the lockdown too soon.
I been scared too. Not even leave house for weeks and got food dropped off by cousin. I did this til i developed a neurological problem. I had this song ringing in my head over and over again and could n’t get rid of it. So i go doctor and tell him about song in my head that won’t go away. He asked me the name of the song and i told him it was Tom Jones the Green Green Grass of Home. He replied that It’s Not Usual.
Thanks for this survey, Amber. This must surely impact future policy on risk of exposure to this disease – eg through reopening of borders. Post vaccine, fatalities may be low but the long term effects and costs are currently incalculable.
Then what’s the point of the Vaccine? What is your pro vax motive when it’s accepted and a known fact by all vaccine manufacturers that the vax does not prevent infection.
The current crop of vaccines are meant to prevent our hospitals being overwhelmed and reduce the death rate and severity of the infection, hopefully reduce transmission as well.
Immunization vaccines will take longer to develop, if at all.
“The current crop of vaccines are meant to prevent our hospitals being overwhelmed”
And when were our hospitals ever overwhelmed? This is typical Ideological scare-mongering.
When Covid19 (SARS2 CoV19) was beginning to be recognized outside of that totalitarian state which appears to be the source country in very early 2020 and just after the WHO declared a pandemic and voided most travel insurances, our country does what it does best.
We defended ourselves by following New Zealand’s lead and closing our international borders.
Australia has this piece of legislation which requires the federal government to declare a state of emergency Health and close our borders whilst quarantining all arrivals if a pandemic is declared.
This strange little piece of legislation is a left over from the Spanish Flu of 1918/19/20.
We should all be very grateful for this, because the Prime Minimal was dabbling with part closures including leaving our borders open to the US (that would not have been in our best interests). Scottie from marketing is not known for his decisiveness or intellect.
After the Border Farce/ Dutton/ Ruby Princess disaster, all of the various state health departments began health disaster planning and considering their own border closures which are reflective of the different demographics of each state.
This was serious enough for the Queensland government to arrange options on the hiring of fridge/ freezer trucks and giant marques to be installed in the exhibition grounds opposite the Royal Hospital to manage a death toll projected to be alongside the magnitude witnessed in Milan.
Brisbane alone had over 1,500 hospital beds kept vacant for 6 weeks, while we all waited to see if the virus had already escaped containment lines.
Did we manage to dodge a bullet?
YES!!
As long as Australia keeps its borders closed and its quarantine processes in place we are reasonably safe.
The currently available vaccines will slow the spread of any outbreak if all the Border Farce, Quarantine Officers, port officials, bus drivers, security staff, armed services, quarantine hotel workers and their closest contacts are all vaccinated.
This group will also need to cover all accident and emergency staff, ICU staff, ward staff that are working in designated Covid wards plus all of their close contacts.
Our ICU’s have not been overwhelmed because of good management and a population who were willing to listen to the scientists and comply with all the mandated measures (except for the denialists).
Ideology has no place in the decision making processes regarding health.
In Queensland, we also have a piece of legislation left over from the 30 year epidemic of Tuberculosis which allows the government to place you in a secure health facility for up to 2 years if the Chief Health Officer deems you to be a risk to the general population’s health.There is no court/ lawyer/ appeal process involved in this matter.
The vaccines will help, in reducing our main threat to the good functioning of our society and the health system as a whole.
If we had had the approval and roll out of the main vaccines 2 to 3 weeks ago, it is quite likely that Melbourne and the rest of Victoria would not be locking down for the next 5 days.
There is absolutely no reason to vacillate regarding vaccination for the front line staff.
Again, if anyone regards social media as a source of accurate information, then I despair for the chances in life that will pass them by as result of this fixation.
Oh, the nutters are out on this one.
More grist to the mill for those who thought ‘let it rip’ was a viable policy. Wrong beyond all measure of wrongitude. Completely wrong. Apologies forthcoming?
As I thought, crickets.
How many nutters can you fit on a marxist ideological pin head?
Oh, Craig your ideological conspiracy theory is showing.
It must be so comforting to be able to believe that this pandemic is a fraud……..