Study: Long Covid affects three in four infected people in RS – 12/04/2023 – Health

A Brazilian study revealed the extent of post-Covid sequelae from a sample of infected people in Rio Grande do Sul.

According to the article, published this Monday (4) in the scientific journal Cadernos de Saúde Pública, around three in four (77.4%) people who had a confirmed diagnosis of Covid developed symptoms lasting three months or more .

The research also showed a prevalence of up to 23% higher in people who did not receive any dose of the vaccine and up to 8% higher for those who took one or even two doses compared to individuals with a complete vaccination schedule — who, at the time of the study, were considered three doses or more.

Obese people, women and people with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, also had a higher risk of developing late symptoms, in line with other research carried out internationally on long Covid.

The study was conducted by several researchers from national research institutions, such as UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) and UFPel (Federal University of Pelotas).

The survey used data from 1,001 participants, aged 18 or over, from Rio Grande do Sul, with a positive result for Sars-CoV-2 by PCR or rapid antigen test.

Started in 2020, during the initial phase of the pandemic, the first stages of the work analyzed the situation caused by acute infection (June 2020) and medium-term sequelae (December of the same year).

The new stage included the so-called fourth “wave” of infection that occurred at the beginning of winter 2022, when the new omicron variants (BA.2 and BA.4, mainly) caused an increase in Covid cases in Brazil and around the world.

“At the beginning, we were focused exclusively on evaluating three things: physical activity, mental health and access to health services during the pandemic. But we began to see that the pandemic has indirect effects, including long Covid”, explains the first author of the study and researcher at the Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology at UFRGS, Natan Feter.

The researchers calculated the so-called prevalence ratio (PR) of developing long Covid, defined by the WHO (World Health Organization) as the persistence of symptoms up to three months after acute coronavirus infection and lasting at least least two months.

In the survey, the prevalence of post-Covid symptoms was 19% higher in women than men, as well as in obese people (9%) and with chronic health conditions (13%).

People with a monthly family income equal to or less than the minimum wage had a high risk of developing late Covid symptoms. The type of condition during the acute infection, whether it was severe, requiring hospitalization or not, also did not change the risk of having post-Covid symptoms.

Among the main symptoms recorded by participants were fatigue (56.8%), neurological complications (43.9%), headache (42.1%), hair loss (33.5%) and loss of taste and smell (30.2%).

“Our study had a demographic bias of income and higher education. So imagine long Covid, as a chronic health condition, with a prevalence of 77% in this population, if you consider people with low education, lower income, who are those who present more chronic diseases”, points out the researcher.

According to the researcher, there is a lack of more targeted actions to talk about and raise awareness about post-Covid consequences in the population. As the study was carried out using a research group in Rio Grande do Sul, direct extrapolation to the Brazilian population is not encouraged, but it is possible to create the hypothesis that, if high prevalence was found in the region, it must be even higher in other areas that had a higher burden of the disease.

Considering that the pandemic had a high number of cases in the country, even with underreported diagnoses, the study concludes that it is necessary to prioritize strategies to reduce the burden of long Covid in the country.

“The burden is a definition from the WHO itself that takes into account the prevalence and indirect consequences of the disease. So in addition to the estimate, complaints of fatigue, cognitive loss, shortness of breath, all of this leads to a drop in productivity and greater search for medical care”, he explains. “It’s important that people don’t normalize post-Covid symptoms either.”