Many people who are infected with COVID-19 will continue to suffer and be unable to recover completely from the disease for a long time. Some COVID-19 patients have symptoms different from those acute ones in the early stages of the disease. They are long-term, chronic symptoms, and with the amount of SARS-CoV-2 viruses constantly changing in the body, the entire recovery process also continues for a long period of time.
This is the long-term effects of the novel coronavirus, also known as the long COVID. About 10 percent to 30 percent of COVID-19 patients will develop long-term symptoms, and so far, there hasn’t been any medical explanation for this.
4 Types of People Are Prone to Long COVID
It has been found that people with the following four characteristics are more likely to develop long COVID.
- High levels of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the early stages: Many people don’t experience serious symptoms. However, a small amount of viruses remain in their bodies during the virus elimination process.
- Generation of autoantibodies after infection: These antibodies do not attack the virus, but instead the patient’s own body. They do not completely stop working as the symptoms subside and continue to attack the body.
- Activation of other viruses in the body after infection with COVID-19: for example, herpes virus.
- Having an underlying disease, such as diabetes: The viruses are more likely to remain in the body for a long time due to a deficiency in the immune system.
COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to a large number of people around the world. However, a recent article published in Nature showed that the vaccine was much less effective than previously thought in reducing the risk of long COVID, with only a slight decrease of 15 percent.
A breakthrough infection review originated from a report published in the journal Nature Medicine on May 25, 2022. The report examines the long-term risk of COVID-19 associated with vaccination on a large scale.
The study tracked 13 million people and is the largest study to date on the issue of long COVID after breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection (BTI) in vaccinated people.
According to the Nature article: “The authors of the latest study also compared symptoms such as brain fog and fatigue in vaccinated and unvaccinated people for up to six months after they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The team found no difference in type or severity of symptoms between those who had been vaccinated and those who had not.”
