Among unvaccinated people infected with SARS-CoV-2, 18% continued to experience COVID-19-related symptoms 24 months after their infection, a new study has found.
Although the severity of symptoms and health impairment decreased over time, the findings underscore the need for infection prevention measures and effective interventions for post-COVID-19 conditions, investigators said.
The researchers followed the self-reported health status and COVID-19 symptoms of more than 1,100 adults with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections who were not vaccinated before their infections and among 628 adults who were not infected.
The number of affected patients appears to be at the lower end of a wide range previously reported for this follow-up duration, they found. Although half of participants reported at least one symptom of poor health at two years after infection, the number fell to 18% when participants were asked if they believed their symptoms were related to COVID-19. Other studies have found lasting symptoms in 22% to 75% of patients.
In addition, 6% of participants with long-lasting symptoms in the current study felt they’d made a full recovery, “implying that the symptoms might have had only minimal impact on their daily lives,” investigators wrote.
For other patients, slow recovery from COVID-19 could indicate progression into chronic health problems, the investigators noted. But the rates of recovery and the overall improvement in symptom severity over time may also “provide some hope for affected individuals,” they added.
Overall, the researchers theorize that “depending on the exact definition used, the reported estimates for post-COVID-19 condition based on symptoms alone might be overestimated in studies conducted within similar timeframes.”
Full findings were published in the BMJ.
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