Re: Long covid outcomes at one year after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection: nationwide cohort study
Dear Editor
The BMJ article entitled “Long covid outcomes at one year after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection: nationwide cohort study”(1) has generated ample coverage by the lay press which interpreted the data to indicate that most symptoms of Long COVID will disappear.
From the reported Hazard Ratios, COVID-19 patients in the late period of study were 69% more likely to have cognitive impairment than uninfected controls (compared to 85% in the early period), 30% more likely to be dyspneic (compared to 79% in early period), 30% more likely to have weakness (compared to 78% in the acute phase) and 16% more likely to have heart palpitations (compared to 49% in the acute phase). In addition, the studied population had a median age of 25 years.
Another way of stating the results is that in very young unvaccinated adults (median age 25 years) who have mild disease, if one has cognitive impairment during the acute illness, this symptom will probably persist (81% of the time), if one has dyspnea or weakness, well over a third will have persistent symptoms, if one has heart palpitations about a third will have persistence of this symptom.
Hastie, C.E., et al,(2) reported that between 6 and 18 months after the acute infection, almost half of Long COVID patients reported incomplete or no recovery.
This is not good news and is very concerning, underscoring why we must take Long COVID seriously, even in young adults.
References
1. Mizrahi B, Sudry T, Flaks-Manov N. Long covid outcomes at one year after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection: nationwide cohort study. BMJ 2023;380:e072529 1, https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072529
2. Hastie CE, Lowe DJ, McAuley A, et al. Outcomes among confirmed cases and a matched comparison group in the Long-COVID in Scotland study. Nature Communications. Oct. 2022.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33415-5
Rapid Response:
Re: Long covid outcomes at one year after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection: nationwide cohort study
Dear Editor
The BMJ article entitled “Long covid outcomes at one year after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection: nationwide cohort study”(1) has generated ample coverage by the lay press which interpreted the data to indicate that most symptoms of Long COVID will disappear.
From the reported Hazard Ratios, COVID-19 patients in the late period of study were 69% more likely to have cognitive impairment than uninfected controls (compared to 85% in the early period), 30% more likely to be dyspneic (compared to 79% in early period), 30% more likely to have weakness (compared to 78% in the acute phase) and 16% more likely to have heart palpitations (compared to 49% in the acute phase). In addition, the studied population had a median age of 25 years.
Another way of stating the results is that in very young unvaccinated adults (median age 25 years) who have mild disease, if one has cognitive impairment during the acute illness, this symptom will probably persist (81% of the time), if one has dyspnea or weakness, well over a third will have persistent symptoms, if one has heart palpitations about a third will have persistence of this symptom.
Hastie, C.E., et al,(2) reported that between 6 and 18 months after the acute infection, almost half of Long COVID patients reported incomplete or no recovery.
This is not good news and is very concerning, underscoring why we must take Long COVID seriously, even in young adults.
References
1. Mizrahi B, Sudry T, Flaks-Manov N. Long covid outcomes at one year after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection: nationwide cohort study. BMJ 2023;380:e072529 1, https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072529
2. Hastie CE, Lowe DJ, McAuley A, et al. Outcomes among confirmed cases and a matched comparison group in the Long-COVID in Scotland study. Nature Communications. Oct. 2022.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33415-5
Competing interests: No competing interests