Episode #19 - COVID-19- Prolonged symptoms after COVID -19
30 December 2020 | Science conversation
Podcast
Transcript
Vismita Gupta-Smith
Welcome to Science in 5. I’m Vismita Gupta-Smith and this is WHO’s conversations in
science. Many people experience several
symptoms, even after recovering from COVID-19. Here to talk about that is WHO’s
Dr. Janet Diaz. Welcome,
Janet.
Dr. Janet Diaz
Thank you so much. I'm
happy to be here.
Vismita Gupta-Smith
Janet,
many people,
even after they recover, are experiencing certain symptoms. What do we know about these symptoms?
Dr. Janet Diaz
We have known that patients
who get severely ill with COVID-19, those that end up in the hospital, those that go to intensive care, that those
patients could develop something known as post-intensive care syndrome. That syndrome has been
described well before COVID in patients who've been critically ill. And so, we are seeing those types of prolonged symptoms and
functional limitations in patients who've been critically ill with COVID-19.
That includes people who have a persistent cough, who have persistent shortness of breath,
perhaps some physical limitations due to being critically ill and in bed for a long time, as
well as, potentially cognitive
issues as well, after being so sick. And so, we are concerned about
that type of post-intensive care syndrome, that we will see with patients after acute COVID-19 hospitalization. There are also smaller
reports, and
this is something that we need really to understand better, of patients who were not hospitalized, that means patients who
are mildly ill. There are reports that those
patients have continued to have some protracted symptoms, such as coughing, such as some shortness of
breath, such as some trouble with breathing, some extensive symptoms of fatigue. So, there is a concern there
that needs to be much better understood about for those patients that were mild
and potentially without risk factors.
Vismita Gupta-Smith
So clearly, Janet, evidence is still
coming in and we're learning more about these symptoms. How long do we know do these symptoms last?
Dr. Janet Diaz
Again, it’s an excellent question but unfortunately we do not know. Again, we can extrapolate
from when I was talking about the hospitalized patients, those that were
severely ill or critically ill, spent time in intensive care. We know from studies in non-COVID patients, that those critically ill patients may have
symptoms to up to six months or even one year after that hospitalization, that post-intensive care syndrome.
So, that can
be quite prolonged. For those patients now that were mild, that may have protracted symptoms, we really don't have enough information to say
how long those
symptoms may persist after the acute illness.
Vismita Gupta-Smith
Janet, what
do we know so far about what proportion of patients, COVID patients, get these symptoms even after recovery?
Dr. Janet Diaz
So, I
don't have a good proportion to share right now because the studies that have
been done are relatively small. So, we can't generalize that to the entire
population with COVID. But again, if I go back to the post-intensive care syndrome, from what we know
about patients who've been critically ill with other diseases, and if we indirectly apply that to patients
who have had COVID-19 and been very sick in the hospital, it could be up to 50%
of those patients may have some sort
of functional limitation, as I described before, at the six month mark. So, again, we don't know the total
proportion or the total numbers of patients, but it is very concerning with the total numbers affected with SARS-CoV-2, you know,
infected, that that
number may be a relatively large.
Vismita Gupta-Smith
Janet, so what is the takeaway here?
Dr. Janet Diaz
Well, I think the takeaway, the most important one is prevention. I
think we need to continue to prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, in order to prevent any acute
infection, with SARS-CoV-2 or any
illness such as COVID-19. If we prevent the acute disease, we will not have persistent symptoms, right?
So, I think
that's the number one. The number two is that, we need to understand better how many people will
suffer from prolonged symptoms; how many of those people are the people are from
the hospital,
that will have the post-intensive care syndrome; and also, how many of those people
are the younger people that may have more mild illness but still suffer from protracted symptoms, that may cause them
limitations in
their quality of life.
Vismita Gupta-Smith
Thank you, Janet. That was Science in 5 today. Until next time
then. Stay
safe, stay healthy and stick with science.
Speaker key
Vismita Vismita Gupta-Smith
Janet Dr. Janet Diaz