Know the three types of long covid

A new study shows three different types long covid according to symptoms, strain and vaccination status of patients. The finding suggests that the disease is not homogeneous as previously thought.

The results of the study have been published as preliminary and still need to be scrutinized by other scientists to confirm their validity.

Clinical data from approximately 1,500 people with persistent symptoms for more than 84 days after being infected coronavirus It was analyzed by researchers at King’s College London and used to characterize three different types of the disease.

In most cases, patients experienced cognitive problems such as confusion, headaches, and fatigue. This picture of long covid is more characteristic of alpha and delta variants of the virus.

But a second group suffered for weeks with breathing problems and chest pain. Lung damage like this was more common in unvaccinated people who contracted the wild coronavirus early in the pandemic.

The parasite can also cause a variety of symptoms, from palpitations to muscle pain or skin problems. Patients presenting with these smorgasbord conditions were grouped into a third disease category by the investigators.

At the beginning of the epidemic Covid-19, cases where the symptoms of the disease are permanent attracted the attention of doctors. This disease, named long covid, is still little known by scientists and its causes remain a mystery.

Marc Modat, one of the study’s authors, says in a note that this research “opens new avenues for better understanding the disease and reducing its long-term effects.” This is the first scientific study to try to classify patients with this condition.

ARTICLE medRXiv: doi.org/10.1101/2022.07.28.2278159