COVID -19, Update, June, Signs and Symptoms
How long does COVID-19 last?
One in ten are sick for three weeks or more
COVID-19, short-term illness caused by SARS-CoV-2
Most health sources, people will recover within two weeks
Some people report symptoms from 3 weeks to months
10%, still have symptoms after three weeks
Some may suffer for months.
Some experience fatigue, headaches, coughs, anosmia (loss of smell), sore throats, delirium, and chest pain for more than three weeks after first symptoms
In severe cases
Symptoms follow a typical pattern
Anosmia, fever, cough in the first two days
Develops into severe respiratory symptoms often needing medical care after about 1 week
In mild cases
More likely to have a variety of strange symptoms that come and go over a more extended period
Tim Spector
The more we learn about coronavirus, the weirder it gets
I’ve studied 100 diseases. COVID is the strangest one I have seen in my medical career
Symptoms in long-term COVID
Cough and high temperature.
Wide range of symptoms as well, e.g. GI, CVS
‘Atypical’ symptoms coming and going over time
‘It started like a cold or flu’
‘By week four, most of the people around me who also had it, including my daughter and my former partner, got better’ (Rachel Pope)
Rachel improved during her fourth week, she got worse again in week 5
Her symptoms moved from her airways into her internal organs, resulting in heart problems that took her to A&E
‘The first time they thought I was having a stroke, and the second time they thought it was a heart attack’ (Rachel)
? Heart problems
? caused by post-viral inflammation
Rather than an ongoing infection
Worry
Lasting organ damage, lugs, liver, brain, kidneys
This damage could also explain ongoing symptoms
Are COVID-19 ‘long-termers’ still infectious?
May go with the symptoms?
Ongoing infection or damage that persists after immune system has cleared the virus
‘I personally think that there was still a viral tail up to week 11’
‘I was still having quite violent diarrhoea at that point, so I think it was still viral’ (Rachel)
NHS
Continue to self-isolate if you have a temperature, runny nose, sickness, diarrhoea or loss of appetite, even if it has been more than 14 days since your symptoms started
People with long-term COVID-19 are struggling to get back to normal life
‘These people may be going back to work and not performing at the top of their game’ (Tim Spector)
‘There is a whole other side to the virus which has not had attention because of the idea that, if you are not dead you are fine’
‘It’s great that we haven’t died, but I’ve now been suffering with serious health problems for three months with very limited support’ (Rachel)