Coronavirus: Chinese study finds most patients still show signs of ‘long Covid’ six months later
- The largest study of its kind found that most of those treated in a Wuhan hospital were still showing symptoms six months after being sent home
- The most common problems were fatigue and difficulty in sleeping, but lung and kidney problems were also recorded
Most patients who received hospital treatment for Covid-19 developed long-term health problems, according to a large-scale study from China.
Researchers found that 76 per cent of those discharged from one hospital in Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak, still showed at least one symptom associated with the disease six months later.
Fatigue and sleep difficulties, which occurred in 63 per cent and 26 per cent of the patients respectively, were the most common problems.
To the surprise of the researchers, over a third of the patients showed signs of kidney malfunction, which led to problems such as an increase in bodily waste in the blood and increased the risk of sexual dysfunction.
“Longer follow-up studies in a larger population are necessary to understand the full spectrum of health consequences from Covid-19,” the team led Dr Cao Bin, from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, wrote in a paper published in The Lancet on Friday.
