Even if you have recovered from Covid-19, don’t let your guards down. A recent study involving more than 87,000 Covid-19 patients and nearly five million control patients has warned that the survivors of the Coronavirus had a 60 per cent increased risk of death compared with flu survivors, with about 29 excess deaths per 1,000 patients at six months.
The study published in the journal Nature also cautioned that survivors of the pathogens also had a substantially higher risk of long-term medical problems and that the Covid-19 is likely to place a massive burden on the world’s population in the coming years.
The study, led by researchers at Washington University’s School of Medicine found that after surviving the initial infection (beyond the first 30 days of illness), Covid-19 survivors had an almost 60 percent increased risk of death over the following six months. At the six-month mark, excess deaths among all Covid-19 survivors were estimated at eight people per 1,000 patients.
Among patients who were ill enough to be hospitalised with Covid-19 and who survived beyond the first 30 days of illness, there were 29 excess deaths per 1,000 patients over the following six months.
“Our study demonstrates that up to six months after diagnosis, the risk of death following even a mild case of Covid-19 is not trivial and increases with disease severity,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, Assistant Professor of medicine at the varsity.
“These later deaths due to long-term complications of the infection are not necessarily recorded as deaths due to Covid-19. As far as the total pandemic death toll, these numbers suggest that the deaths we’re counting due to the immediate viral infection are only the tip of the iceberg,” Al-Aly said.
Moreover, despite being initially a respiratory virus, long Covid-19 can affect nearly every organ system in the body, including the respiratory system, nervous system, mental health, metabolism, cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal system, kidney, coagulation regulation, skin, musculoskeletal system, and general health, the researchers noted.
In fact, in an yet another observational study of more than 230,000 patient health records published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal said that one in three Covid-19 survivors received a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis within six months of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The study looked at 14 neurological and mental health disorders.