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A year on, half of Wuhan’s hospitalised Covid patients have health issues: Study
The study done by Chinese scientists from Beijing and Wuhan assessed health outcomes at six and 12 months for 1,276 Covid-19 patients treated at Jin Yin-Tan hospital in Wuhan between January and May 2020
Around half of the patients hospitalised with Covid-19 in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2020 had health problems including muscle fatigue, shortness of breath and depression 12 months after their discharge, a year-long study has found.
Overall, their health was weaker a year after recovery compared to those who were not infected with the virus, a study published in the medical journal Lancet said on Friday.
The study conducted on recovered patients highlights the lingering impact of Covid-19 in some patients, sometimes lasting for months, though most recover fully.
The study done by Chinese scientists from Beijing and Wuhan assessed health outcomes at six and 12 months for 1,276 Covid-19 patients treated at Jin Yin-Tan hospital in Wuhan between January and May 2020.
The Covid-19 pandemic has so far claimed over 4.47 million lives around the world and infected more than 214 million people, according to the widely followed coronavirus tracker maintained by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.
“Though most symptoms had resolved by 12 months, around one half of survivors still experienced at least one ongoing symptom (most commonly fatigue or muscle weakness), and one in three patients still experienced shortness of breath,” the study said.
Around one in three people experienced shortness of breath while “lung impairments” persisted in some patients, especially those who had experienced the most severe illness with Covid-19.
“Fatigue or muscle weakness was the most commonly reported symptom with around half of patients experiencing this at six months… Almost one third of patients reported experiencing shortness of breath at 12 months, which was more prevalent in patients who had been the most severely ill and had been on a ventilator during their time in hospital,” the study said.
The study in Lancet also showed that the proportion of recovering patients reporting mental health issues was slightly higher at 12 months than at six, with 26% experiencing anxiety and depression.
The Covid-19 virus first emerged in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, in late 2019 before spreading in and outside China, triggering the worst pandemic in a century.
Bin Cao, a professor at National Centre for Respiratory Medicine at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, said, “Our study is the largest to date to assess the health outcomes of hospitalised Covid-19 survivors after 12 months of becoming ill. While most had made a good recovery, health problems persisted in some patients, especially those who had been critically ill during their hospital stay.
“Our findings suggest that recovery for some patients will take longer than one year, and this should be taken into account when planning delivery of healthcare services post-pandemic.”
A Lancet editorial published with the study stressed on the need to understand and respond to the long-term impact of the disease.
“Symptoms such as persistent fatigue, breathlessness, brain fog, and depression could debilitate many millions of people globally. Yet very little is known about the condition… With no proven treatments or even rehabilitation guidance, long Covid affects people’s ability to resume normal life and their capacity to work,” the editorial said.
“The effect on society, from the increased healthcare burden and economic and productivity losses, is substantial. Long Covid is a modern medical challenge of the first order,” it added.
What is worrying Xiaoying Gu, another author of the study from the same hospital as Bin quoted earlier, is the long-drawn psychological impact on patients.
“We do not yet fully understand why psychiatric symptoms are slightly more common at one year than at six months in Covid-19 survivors. These could be caused by a biological process linked to the virus infection itself, or the body’s immune response to it. Or they could be linked to reduced social contact, loneliness, incomplete recovery of physical health or loss of employment associated with illness,” Xiaoying said.
“Large, long-term studies of Covid-19 survivors are needed so that we can better understand the long term physical and mental health consequences of Covid-19,” Xiaoying added.
