Government to study long-term health impact of COVID-19
− recovered patients to be monitored
Evaluations of the long-term effects of COVID-19 on recovered patients have so far unearthed signs and symptoms of heart disease in younger patients.
Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony said it is important to note that these younger people only had mild symptoms of coronavirus.
“In some cases, they were never even hospitalised and then three months after they noticed that younger people were coming into the hospitals with typical signs and symptoms of heart disease, which is not the norm for a young person and when they go back into the history, they notice that these persons actually had a mild form of COVID-19,” the Minister told DPI.
Similarly, older recovered patients have reported breathing issues, cognitive difficulties, depression, anxiety, continuing headaches and sometimes severe Lymphadenopathy (swollen or enlarged lymph nodes).
“It is something that we would have to monitor, we might want to interrogate to see whether they had a clinical history of COVID-19. This is relatively new and we are learning more about this disease, and this is just another area that has surfaced. We’ll have to put more efforts into learning and investigating what is happening.”
A report by Britain’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) showed ongoing illness after infection with COVID-19. Similarly, a study by Oxford University showed that two to three months after the onset of the COVID-19, 64 per cent of patients suffered persistent breathlessness and 55 per cent suffered from significant fatigue. MRI scans also showed abnormalities in the lungs, kidneys, hearts and liver.
Dr. Sarath Raju, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said though more research is needed, doctors are finding recovered COVID-19 patients with symptoms long after the initial infection has passed. These include shortness of breath and fatigue.
The US’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also said it is actively working to learn more about the whole range of short- and long-term health effects associated with COVID-19. It said one health effect it is watching closely and working to understand relates to COVID-19 and the heart.