Jump to content

Search the hub

Showing results for tags 'Symptoms'.

More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Start to type the tag you want to use, then select from the list.

  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • All
    • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Culture
    • Improving patient safety
    • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Leadership for patient safety
    • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Patient engagement
    • Patient safety in health and care
    • Patient Safety Learning
    • Professionalising patient safety
    • Research, data and insight
    • Miscellaneous

Categories

  • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Commissioning and funding patient safety
    • Digital health and care service provision
    • Health records and plans
    • Innovation programmes in health and care
    • Climate change/sustainability
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Blogs
    • Data, research and statistics
    • Frontline insights during the pandemic
    • Good practice and useful resources
    • Guidance
    • Mental health
    • Exit strategies
    • Patient recovery
    • Questions around Government governance
  • Culture
    • Bullying and fear
    • Good practice
    • Occupational health and safety
    • Safety culture programmes
    • Second victim
    • Speak Up Guardians
    • Staff safety
    • Whistle blowing
  • Improving patient safety
    • Clinical governance and audits
    • Design for safety
    • Disasters averted/near misses
    • Equipment and facilities
    • Error traps
    • Health inequalities
    • Human factors (improving human performance in care delivery)
    • Improving systems of care
    • Implementation of improvements
    • International development and humanitarian
    • Safety stories
    • Stories from the front line
    • Workforce and resources
  • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Investigations and complaints
    • Risk management and legal issues
  • Leadership for patient safety
    • Business case for patient safety
    • Boards
    • Clinical leadership
    • Exec teams
    • Inquiries
    • International reports
    • National/Governmental
    • Patient Safety Commissioner
    • Quality and safety reports
    • Techniques
    • Other
  • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Government and ALB direction and guidance
    • International patient safety
    • Regulators and their regulations
  • Patient engagement
    • Consent and privacy
    • Harmed care patient pathways/post-incident pathways
    • How to engage for patient safety
    • Keeping patients safe
    • Patient-centred care
    • Patient Safety Partners
    • Patient stories
  • Patient safety in health and care
    • Care settings
    • Conditions
    • Diagnosis
    • High risk areas
    • Learning disabilities
    • Medication
    • Mental health
    • Men's health
    • Patient management
    • Social care
    • Transitions of care
    • Women's health
  • Patient Safety Learning
    • Patient Safety Learning campaigns
    • Patient Safety Learning documents
    • Patient Safety Standards
    • 2-minute Tuesdays
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2018
    • Patient Safety Learning Awards 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Interviews
    • Patient Safety Learning webinars
  • Professionalising patient safety
    • Accreditation for patient safety
    • Competency framework
    • Medical students
    • Patient safety standards
    • Training & education
  • Research, data and insight
    • Data and insight
    • Research
  • Miscellaneous

News

  • News

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start
    End

Last updated

  • Start
    End

Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End

Group

First name

Last name

Country

Join a private group (if appropriate)

About me

Organisation

Role

Found 198 results
  1. Content Article
    This report looks at several incidences of pregnant women with Covid-19 symptoms being sent to a maternity unit, when it would have been more appropriate for them to attend A&E. It highlights some confusion amongst health professionals and states that the Coronavirus (Covid-19) Infection in Pregnancy Guidance was updated to make care pathways clearer.
  2. Content Article
    This is the second of two dynamic reviews of the evidence around people’s experience of the enduring symptoms following a Covid-19 infection. The National Institute for Health Research published their first review of the evidence in October 2020. At the time there was uncertainty about the extent to which there could be lasting effects, and most people assumed a linear progression of a severe acute infection with a long recovery tail. The first review on “Living with Covid-19” was informed by the experience of professionals and the NIHR worked closely with a group of people with lived experience. This review focuses on the published evidence. In addition, it reports findings from a short survey of people living with Covid-19. With over 3,000 responses it provides an insight into the key issues and challenges for people living with Covid-19.
  3. Content Article
    This self-assessment tool has been developed by the British Lung Foundation for people with Long Covid symptoms. It aims to help patients identify and prioritise their needs, signposts them to further information and outlines the help they should get in dealing with Long Covid. It is anonymous and takes 5-10 minutes to complete. Patients can also print out their answers and share them with healthcare professionals an employers to clearly highlight an individual's needs.
  4. Content Article
    In the UK, up to two-thirds of GBS infection in babies are of early onset (showing within the first 6 days of life). Read more about the symptoms and download an awareness poster via the link below to the Group B Strep Support website.
  5. News Article
    A life-saving campaign is being launched by the NHS to urge people to learn how to spot signs of a heart attack. The survival rate for heart attack sufferers is seven in 10, rising to nine in 10 for those who have early hospital treatment. The most common sign of a heart attack is chest pain, but other symptoms to look out for include chest, arm, jaw, neck, back and stomach pain, lightheadedness or dizziness, sweating, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, anxiety, coughing and wheezing. The health service are encouraging anyone experiencing these indicators to call 999. It comes after a poll found found that fewer than half of people knew to dial 999 if they or a loved one experienced the more vague signs of a heart attack. Another priority of the campaign is to teach people how to differentiate between a heart attack and cardiac arrest. According to the health service, there is often no warning and the person quickly loses consciousness when they suffer cardiac arrest. Those experiencing a cardiac arrest will usually die within minutes if they do not receive treatment. It also points out that a heart attack can lead to a cardiac arrest. NHS medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: “Sadly, cardiovascular disease causes a quarter of all deaths across the country and we have identified this as the single biggest area where we can save lives over the next decade. Read full story Source: 13 February 2022
  6. News Article
    It is one of many mysteries about Long Covid: Who is more prone to developing it? Are some people more likely than others to experience physical, neurological or cognitive symptoms that can emerge, or linger for, months after their coronavirus infections have cleared? Now, a team of researchers who followed more than 200 patients for two to three months after their Covid diagnoses report that they have identified biological factors that might help predict if a person will develop long Covid. The study, published by the journal Cell, found four factors that could be identified early in a person’s coronavirus infection that appeared to correlate with increased risk of having lasting symptoms weeks later: The level of coronavirus RNA in the blood early in the infection, an indicator of viral load. The presence of certain autoantibodies — antibodies that mistakenly attack tissues in the body as they do in conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. The reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus, a virus that infects most people, often when they are young, and then usually becomes dormant. Having Type 2 diabetes, although the researchers and other experts said that in studies involving larger numbers of patients, it might turn out that diabetes is only one of several medical conditions that increase the risk of Long Covid. The researchers said they had found that there was an association between these factors and Long Covid whether the initial infection was serious or mild. They said that the findings might suggest ways to prevent or treat some cases of Long Covid, including the possibility of giving people antiviral medications soon after an infection has been diagnosed. “I think this research stresses the importance of doing measurements early in the disease course to figure out how to treat patients, even if we don’t really know how we’re going to use all that information yet,” said Jim Heath, the principal investigator of the study. However, the study authors and other experts cautioned that the findings were exploratory and would need to be verified by considerably more research. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The New York Times, 25 January 2022
  7. News Article
    Experts have estimated that almost 300,000 people in Britain could have a potentially deadly heart valve disease called aortic stenosis - including almost 100,000 who are unaware they have it. The condition carries a high death rate if left untreated and occurs when the main valve which takes blood from the heart stiffens and narrows. Many people do not know they have the disease and only discover they do when it is too late for treatment. An international team of scientists, including experts from the Universities of Glasgow and Southampton, set out to research the extent of the disease in the UK. Their study, published in the journal Open Heart, estimated that in the UK in 2019 there were 291,448 men and women aged 55 and over with severe aortic stenosis. Of these, an estimated 68 per cent would have symptoms. This means an estimated 92,389 people have the disease and do not know it. The authors went on to estimate that more than 172,000 (59%) who have the disease will “die within five years without proactive management”. They concluded that aortic stenosis is a “common condition” in the UK but warned that “without appropriate detection and intervention, survival prospects are likely to be poor”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 25 January 2022
  8. News Article
    Fewer than one in three patients who have ongoing Covid symptoms after being hospitalised with the disease say they feel fully recovered a year later, according to a study that offers new insights into potential treatments. As the pandemic has unfolded, a growing body of research has revealed that Covid not only causes health problems in the short-term, but also has long-term effects. Now a study has revealed many of those who had ongoing symptoms after hospitalisation are showing little improvement, with their condition similar at about 12 months after discharge to seven months earlier. “Only one in three participants felt fully recovered at one year,” said Dr Rachel Evans, one of the co-leads of the post-hospitalisation Covid-19 study – or Phos-Covid – which is led by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, although the team says missing data means the figure could be as low as 2 in 10 or as high as 6 in 10. The research – which has yet to be peer-reviewed – reveals how the team collected both self-reported and objective measures of health, such as physical performance and organ function, among 2,320 adults about five months after they were discharged from hospital after having had Covid. They then looked at similar measures for 924 participants at about one year after discharge, 807 of whom had attended the previous follow-up. Between five months and one year after discharge, the proportion of participants reporting feeling recovered remained very similar – at just under 30% at 12 months – as did the prevalence of symptoms including breathlessness, fatigue and pain. Little or no improvement was seen for areas including organ function, physical function and cognitive impairment – or “brain fog” – with about one in 10 participants having a significant degree of the latter 12 months after discharge. “Unfortunately, we weren’t seeing improvements at one year from where people were at five months post-discharge,” said Evans. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 December 2021
  9. News Article
    A doctor who became very unwell with COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic was later found to have multiple blood clots in his brain which could easily have killed him. Dr Ian Frayling started suffering with a "bone-cracking" fever, muscle pain and a "cough like no other" in March 2020, weeks before the national lockdown was announced by the UK and Welsh governments. His condition then took a turn for the worse when he started experiencing problems with his breathing and encountering such extreme brain fog that entire days would pass him by. The 62-year-old said his "frightening" range of symptoms, which also included irritable bowel syndrome, disruptive sleep and difficulty with coordination, persisted for many months and left him a fatigued shell of his former self. After sharing his story with WalesOnline 12 months ago, Dr Frayling was invited to meet the Senedd's health committee in March 2021 to give evidence of his battle with Long Covid. It led to a respiratory consultant reaching out to him and offering him a full clinical assessment at the University Hospital Llandough. Not only did she find problems with his heart and blood pressure, which were to be expected, but a referral for CT scans in May 2021 revealed that he was living with several blood clots in his brain which were very likely to be attributed to the after-effects of coronavirus. It meant suffering a catastrophic stroke was highly likely. After being given the deeply distressing news, Dr Frayling said his mind began turning to other people with Long Covid who may be experiencing similar neurological symptoms but are waiting many months to be referred to see a specialist doctor by their GP. "The consultant used her clinical skills and expertise [to properly assess me and give me a CT scan]. I'm one of the lucky ones. A GP can't directly send people off for these kind of tests, so there could be thousands of people with Long Covid, just like me, who aren't getting the help they need and are just being fobbed off." Read full story Source: Wales Online, 28 November 2021
  10. News Article
    The first pill designed to treat symptomatic Covid has been approved by the UK medicines regulator. The tablet - molnupiravir - will be given twice a day to vulnerable patients recently diagnosed with the disease. In clinical trials the pill, originally developed to treat flu, cut the risk of hospitalisation or death by about half. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the treatment was a "gamechanger" for the most frail and immunosuppressed. In a statement he said: "Today is a historic day for our country, as the UK is now the first country in the world to approve an antiviral that can be taken at home for Covid." Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 November 2021
  11. News Article
    One in 10 people infected with the coronavirus experience symptoms that last for three months or longer, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. A new analysis aimed at determining the extent of the “long Covid” problem among infected patients also found that one in five reported having symptoms that lasted for five weeks or longer. The ONS said it estimated that during the week ending on 28 November, there were about 186,000 people in England living with COVID-19 symptoms that had lasted between five and 12 weeks. This number could be as high as 221,000, the ONS warned. It said the data was experimental and based on the findings from its infection survey of households. Read full story Source: The Independent, 16 December 2020
  12. News Article
    COVID-19 could be causing lung abnormalities still detectable more than three months after patients are infected, researchers suggest. A study of 10 patients at Oxford University used a novel scanning technique to identify damage not picked up by conventional scans. It uses a gas called xenon during MRI scans to create images of lung damage. Lung experts said a test that could spot long-term damage would make a huge difference to Covid patients. The xenon technique sees patients inhale the gas during a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Prof Fergus Gleeson, who is leading the work, tried out his scanning technique on 10 patients aged between 19 and 69. Eight of them had persistent shortness of breath and tiredness three months after being ill with coronavirus, even though none of them had been admitted to intensive care or required ventilation, and conventional scans had found no problems in their lungs. The scans showed signs of lung damage - by highlighting areas where air is not flowing easily into the blood - in the eight who reported breathlessness. The results have prompted Prof Gleeson to plan a trial of up to 100 people to see if the same is true of people who had not been admitted to hospital and had not suffered from such serious symptoms. He is planning to work with GPs to scan people who have tested positive for COVID-19 across a range of age groups. The aim is to discover whether lung damage occurs and if so whether it is permanent, or resolves over time. Read full story Source: BBC News, 1 December 2020
  13. News Article
    Young and previously healthy people with ongoing symptoms of COVID-19 are showing signs of damage to multiple organs four months after the initial infection, a study suggests. The findings are a step towards unpicking the physical underpinnings and developing treatments for some of the strange and extensive symptoms experienced by people with “long Covid”, which is thought to affect more than 60,000 people in the UK. Fatigue, brain fog, breathlessness and pain are among the most frequently reported effects. On Sunday, the NHS announced it would launch a network of more than 40 long Covid specialist clinics where doctors, nurses and therapists will assess patients’ physical and psychological symptoms. The Coverscan study aims to assess the long-term impact of COVID-19 on organ health in around 500 “low-risk” individuals – those who are relatively young and without any major underlying health complaints – with ongoing Covid symptoms, through a combination of MRI scans, blood tests, physical measurements and online questionnaires. Preliminary data from the first 200 patients to undergo screening suggests that almost 70% have impairments in one or more organs, including the heart, lungs, liver and pancreas, four months after their initial illness. “The good news is that the impairment is mild, but even with a conservative lens, there is some impairment, and in 25% of people it affects two or more organs,” said Amitava Banerjee, a cardiologist and associate professor of clinical data science at University College London. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 November 2020
  14. News Article
    It has a plethora of symptoms, strikes the young and old, and lasts for months – maybe much longer. It’s also so new that scientists aren’t sure what they’re dealing with. For those whose lives have been deeply affected by long-term repercussions of Covid, the battle to be recognised is just the start. There are thousands of people in the UK dealing with the long-term effects of COVID-19, experiencing debilitating symptoms that last for weeks and months beyond the initial infection. One of the most commonly reported is fatigue, along with breathlessness, joint pain and muscle aches. Neurological issues are common, particularly brain ‘fog’ and a loss of memory and concentration. Some have chest pain or heart palpitations, skin rashes, diarrhoea, headaches, hearing or eyesight problems, or hair loss. Others have lost their senses of taste and smell. In online support groups, people are sharing stories of bone-crippling exhaustion, constant pain in their chest or heart, or the inability to remember a name or follow a conversation. These people don’t fit the binary model of the virus we thought we knew – that if you’re in the small minority who are seriously affected you might be hospitalised, end up in ICU or worse; otherwise you’ll likely be better after two weeks. Many only had mild cases originally and were not deemed to be in vulnerable categories. Widely varying symptoms have added to the confusion and fear surrounding the condition, which currently has no formal definition. For months, people with Long Covid had no one to turn to but each other. It’s only recently – through increasing research emerging, and sufferers publicly sharing their stories – that it has started to be taken more seriously. Earlier this month, NHS England announced a £10 million investment to set up one-stop services for physical and mental health issues caused by Covid alongside a Long Covid task force and, crucially, research on 10,000 patients. Not much is known about what causes Long Covid and there is little firm consensus. There are theories it occurs when a patient’s immune system overreacts to the infection, which can lead to widespread inflammation that theoretically affects any organ. Last week, a study by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) suggested Long Covid symptoms could actually be caused by four separate syndromes: post-intensive-care syndrome, post-viral fatigue syndrome, permanent organ damage to the lungs and heart, or lingering COVID-19 symptoms. Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 24 October 2020
  15. News Article
    Women aged 50-60 are at greatest risk of developing “long Covid”, analysis suggests. Older age and experiencing five or more symptoms within the first week of illness were also associated with a heightened risk of lasting health problems. The study, led by Dr Claire Steves and Prof Tim Spector at King’s College London, analysed data from 4,182 COVID Symptom Study app users who had been consistently logging their health and had tested positive for the virus. In general, women were twice as likely to suffer from Covid symptoms that lasted longer than a month, compared with men – but only until around the age of 60, when their risk level became more similar. Covid vaccine tracker: when will a cor Increasing age was also associated with a heightened risk of long Covid, with about 22% of people aged over 70 suffering for four weeks or more, compared with 10% of people aged between 18 and 49. For women in the 50-60 age bracket, these two risk factors appeared to combine: They were eight times more likely to experience lasting symptoms of Covid-19 compared with 18- to 30-year-olds. However, the greatest difference between men and women was seen among those aged between 40 and 50, where women’s risk of developing long Covid was double that of men’s. “This is a similar pattern to what you see in autoimmune diseases,” said Spector. “Things like rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease and lupus are two to three times more common in women until just before menopause, and then it becomes more similar.” His guess is that gender differences in the way the immune system responds to coronavirus may account for this difference." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 September 2020
  16. News Article
    Old age and having a wide range of initial symptoms increase the risk of "long Covid", say scientists. The study estimates one in 20 people are sick for least eight weeks. The research at King's College London also showed being female, excess weight and asthma raised the risk. The aim is to develop an early warning signal that can identify patients who need extra care or who might benefit from early treatment. The findings come from an analysis of people entering their symptoms and test results into the COVID Symptom Study app. Scientists scoured the data for patterns that could predict who would get long-lasting illness. "Having more than five different symptoms in the first week was one of the key risk factors," Dr Claire Steves, from Kings College London, told BBC News. COVID-19 is more than just a cough - and the virus that causes it can affect organs throughout the body. Somebody who had a cough, fatigue, headache and diarrhoea, and lost their sense of smell, which are all potential symptoms,- would be at higher risk than somebody who had a cough alone. The risk also rises with age, particularly over 50, as did being female. Dr Steves said: "We've seen from the early data coming out that men were at much more risk of very severe disease and sadly of dying from Covid, it appears that women are more at risk of long Covid." No previous medical conditions were linked to long Covid except asthma and lung disease. Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 October 2020
  17. News Article
    The Health Secretary is urging the public – and especially young people – to follow the rules and protect themselves and others from COVID-19, as new data and a new film released today reveal the potentially devastating long-term impact of the virus. The symptoms of ‘long COVID’, including fatigue, protracted loss of taste or smell, respiratory and cardiovascular symptoms and mental health problems, are described in a new film being released today as part of the wider national Hands, Face, Space campaign. The film calls on the public to continue to wash their hands, cover their face and make space to control the spread of the virus. The emotive film features the stories of Jade, 22, Jade, 32, Tom, 32 and John, 48, who explain how their lives have been affected – weeks and months after being diagnosed with COVID-19. They discuss symptoms such as breathlessness when walking up the stairs, intermittent fevers and chest pain. The film aims to raise awareness of the long-term impact of COVID-19 as we learn more about the virus. A new study from King’s College London, using data from the COVID Symptom Study App and ZOE, shows one in 20 people with COVID-19 are likely to have symptoms for 8 weeks or more. The study suggests long COVID affects around 10% of 18 to 49 year olds who become unwell with COVID-19. Read full story Source: Gov.uk, 21 October 2020
  18. News Article
    After contracting COVID-19 in March, Michael Reagan lost all memory of his 12-day vacation in Paris even though the trip was just a few weeks earlier. Several weeks after Erica Taylor recovered from her coronavirus symptoms of nausea and cough, she became confused and forgetful, failing to even recognise her own car, the only Toyota Prius in her apartment complex’s parking lot. Lisa Mizelle, a veteran nurse practitioner at an urgent care clinic who fell ill with the virus in July, finds herself forgetting routine treatments and lab tests, and has to ask colleagues about terminology she used to know automatically. It is becoming known as Covid “brain fog”: troubling cognitive symptoms that can include memory loss, confusion, difficulty focusing, dizziness and grasping for everyday words. Increasingly Covid survivors say brain fog is impairing their ability to work and function normally. “There are thousands of people who have that,” said Dr Igor Koralnik, chief of neuro-infectious disease at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, who has already seen hundreds of survivors at a post-Covid clinic he leads. The effect on the workforce that is affected is going to be significant, he added. Read full story Source: The Irish Times, 18 October 2020
  19. News Article
    "Long Covid" – the long-lasting impact of coronavirus infection – may be affecting people in four different ways, according to a review, and this could explain why some of those with continuing symptoms are not being believed or treated. There could be a huge psychological impact on people living with long-term COVID-19, the National Institute for Health Research report says. They need more support – and healthcare staff require better information. Most people are told they will recover from mild coronavirus infections within two weeks and from more serious disease within three. But the report says thousands could be living with "ongoing Covid". Based on interviews with 14 members of a long-Covid support group on Facebook and the most recent published research, the review found recurring symptoms affecting everything from breathing, the brain, the heart and cardiovascular system to the kidneys, the gut, the liver and the skin. These symptoms may be due to four different syndromes: permanent organ damage to the lungs and heart post-intensive-care syndrome post-viral fatigue syndrome continuing COVID-19 symptoms Some of those affected have had a long stay in hospital with severe Covid-19 - but others, who have had a mild infection, have never even been tested or diagnosed. The review says coming up with a "working diagnosis for ongoing COVID-19" would help people access support. Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 October 2020
  20. News Article
    A 45-year-old British man has been left with permanent hearing loss after developing COVID-19. UK doctors say it is the first such case they have seen linked to the pandemic coronavirus. Although rare, sudden hearing loss can follow other viral infections, such as flu. The ear-nose-and-throat experts told BMJ Case Reports journal steroid drugs could help avoid this damage if given early enough. The patient, who has asthma, had been admitted to a London hospital with COVID-19 symptoms and transferred to intensive care after struggling to breathe. Tests confirmed he had coronavirus and he was put on a ventilator machine. He also needed various drugs and a blood transfusion before beginning to recover and coming off the ventilator 30 days later. A week after the breathing tube was removed and he left intensive care, he noticed tinnitus (a ringing or buzzing noise) followed by sudden hearing loss in his left ear. A hearing test suggested the loss was linked to damage to the hearing nerve, the middle ear, or both, rather than inflammation or a blockage to the ear canal. Doctors could find no explanations for his hearing problem, other than his recent COVID-19 illness. They gave him steroid tablets as well as injections into the ear, which helped a little, but he has some irreversible hearing loss. Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 October 2020
  21. News Article
    A man in the United States has caught Covid twice, with the second infection becoming far more dangerous than the first, doctors report. The 25-year-old needed hospital treatment after his lungs could not get enough oxygen into his body. Reinfections remain rare and he has now recovered. However, the study in the Lancet Infectious Diseases raises questions about how much immunity can be built up to the virus. The man from Nevada had no known health problems or immune defects that would make him particularly vulnerable to Covid. Scientists say the patient caught coronavirus twice, rather than the original infection becoming dormant and then bouncing back. A comparison of the genetic codes of the virus taken during each bout of symptoms showed they were too distinct to be caused by the same infection. "Our findings signal that a previous infection may not necessarily protect against future infection," said Dr Mark Pandori, from the University of Nevada. "The possibility of reinfections could have significant implications for our understanding of COVID-19 immunity." Read full story Source: BBC News, 13 October 2020
  22. News Article
    One of the largest studies of its kind suggests that most pregnant women who become infected with the coronavirus will have mild cases but suffer prolonged symptoms that may linger for two months or longer in some cases. The study, published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that most women who participated had mild cases of COVID-19 — a finding consistent with previous studies. Among the nearly 600 women followed, only 5% were hospitalised and 2% were admitted to intensive care units. Despite the mildness of their cases, 25% of the participants continued to experience symptoms eight weeks after becoming sick. The median length of symptoms was 37 days. Although pregnancy is known to cause major changes to the immune system, the length of time for continuing symptoms was surprising, said co-principal investigator Vanessa Jacoby, vice chair of research in the obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences department at the University of California at San Francisco. Read full story Source: The Washington Post, 10 October 2020
  23. News Article
    For most people, COVID-19 is a brief and mild disease but some are left struggling with symptoms including lasting fatigue, persistent pain and breathlessness for months. The condition known as "long Covid" is having a debilitating effect on people's lives, and stories of being left exhausted after even a short walk are now common. There is no medical definition or list of symptoms shared by all patients - two people with long Covid can have very different experiences. However, the most common feature is crippling fatigue. Others symptoms include: breathlessness, a cough that won't go away, joint pain, muscle aches, hearing and eyesight problems, headaches, loss of smell and taste as well as damage to the heart, lungs, kidneys and gut. Mental health problems have been reported including depression, anxiety and struggling to think clearly. Long Covid is not just people taking time to recover from a stay in intensive care. Even people with relatively mild infections can be left with lasting and severe health problems. "We've got no doubt long Covid exists," Prof David Strain, from the University of Exeter, who is already seeing long-Covid patients at his Chronic Fatigue Syndrome clinic, told the BBC. A study of 143 people in Rome's biggest hospital, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, followed hospital patients after they were discharged. It showed 87% had at least one symptom nearly two months later and more than half still had fatigue. The Covid Symptom Tracker App - used by around four million people in the UK - found 12% of people still had symptoms after 30 days. Its latest, unpublished data, suggests as many as one in 50 (2%) of all people infected have long-Covid symptoms after 90 days. The number of people with long-Covid appears to be falling with time. However, the virus emerged only at the end of 2019 before going global earlier this year so there is a lack of long-term data. "We've asked, deliberately, to follow people for 25 years, I certainly hope only a very small number will have problems going beyond a year, but I could be wrong," said Prof Brightling. However, there are concerns that even if people appear to recover now, they could face lifelong risks. People who have had chronic fatigue syndrome are more likely to have it again and the concern is that future infections may cause more flare-ups. "If long Covid follows the same pattern I'd expect some recovery, but if it takes just another coronavirus infection to react then this could be every winter," said Prof Strain. It is still possible more problems could emerge in the future. Read full story Source: BBC News, 6 October 2020
  24. News Article
    Melissa Vanier, a 52-year-old postal worker from Vancouver, had just returned from holiday in Cuba when she fell seriously ill with COVID-19. “For the entire month of March I felt like I had broken glass in my throat,” she says, describing a range of symptoms that included fever, migraines, extreme fatigue, memory loss and brain fog. “I had to sleep on my stomach because otherwise it felt like someone was strangling me.” By the third week of March, Vanier had tested negative for Sars-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19. But although the virus had left her body, this would prove to be just the beginning of her problems. In May, she noticed from her Fitbit that her heart rate appeared to be highly abnormal. When cardiologists conducted a nuclear stress test – a diagnostic tool that measures the blood flow to the heart – it showed she had ischaemic heart disease, meaning that the heart was not getting sufficient blood and oxygen. Similar stories illustrate a wider trend – that the coronavirus can leave patients with lasting heart damage long after the initial symptoms have dissipated. Cardiologists are still trying to find out exactly why some people are left with enduring heart problems despite having had an apparently mild bout of COVID-19. The underlying mechanisms are thought to be slow and subtle changes that are quite different to those that put strain on the heart during the acute illness, especially in patients who have been hospitalised with the disease. Some cardiologists have suggested that treatments such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin or beta blockers may help patients with lingering cardiovascular effects many weeks or months after the initial infection, but the evidence remains limited. “It is too early to share data on this,” says Mitrani. “But these therapies have proven efficacy in other inflammatory heart muscle diseases. They have anti-inflammatory effects and we believe may help counter some of the lingering pro-inflammatory effects from Covid-19.” But for patients such as Vanier, there remains a long and uncertain road to see whether her heart does fully recover from the impact of the virus. “Psychologically this has been brutal,” she says. “I haven’t been back to work since I went on holiday in February. The heart hasn’t improved, and I now have to wait for more tests to see if they can find out more.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 4 October 2020
  25. News Article
    A 33-year-old woman says she's been suffering awful coronavirus symptoms for six months and says it's "ruined her life". Stephanie, from London, says her symptoms began in mid-March when she started experiencing loss of taste and smell, body aches, headaches, a fever, shivering, hot and cold sweats, and sickness. But six months later she still has had no sense of taste and smell, she suffers brain fog and chronic fatigue and says just walking across her flat leaves her chest feeling tight. The photographer, who lives alone, says she sleeps for 10-12 hours but is still always tired. "I'm only 33," she said. Stephanie wants to raise awareness of 'long Covid' and says more research needs to be done on how to treat the long-term effects of the disease. She said she's scared she'll 'never be the same again'. Stephanie says she has a hospital appointment on Friday to have tests on her lungs and heart as doctors are concerned she has lung damage. She added: "I think some people don't believe in long Covid, so I want to raise awareness of what people are going through. We need more research of how to treat people with long Covid because there isn't much available, it's so awful." Read full story Source: Mirror, 1 October 2020
×
×
  • Create New...