GlobalHealth Threats

In a study published in Science Direct, Health - Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) was evaluated in survivors of severe COVID-19 infection at 3 months. Data was analysed from 54 COVID-19 patients, admitted to surgical ICU at Saint-Louis Hospital (Paris, France) between the 16^th of March and the 18^th of May 2020. Sixteen (29%) patients died in ICU. Among the survivors, researchers found “all severe COVID-19 survivors had an impaired quality of life at 3 months of follow-up. In addition, up to 80% of these survivors described pain or discomfort in their daily life, and almost half of the patients complained about mental health disturbances and worsened mobility due to muscular weakness and articular pain.”

A second study (currently a preprint) compared 58 COVID-19 patients post-hospital discharge with 30 non- COVID-19 patients with matched comorbidities. Researchers analysed multi-organ (brain, lungs, heart, liver and kidneys) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), spirometry (test to evaluate how well the lungs work), six-minute walk test, cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET), quality of life, cognitive and mental health assessments. They found “At 2-3 months from disease-onset, 64% of patients experienced persistent breathlessness and 55% complained of significant fatigue. On MRI, tissue abnormalities were seen in the lungs (60%), heart (26%), liver (10%) and kidneys (29%) of patients". Patients who survived COVID-19 also reported symptoms of moderate to severe anxiety and depression and a diminished quality of life compared to the controls.

Similar results were discovered in another preprint study looking at long-term neurologic outcomes, also referred as the “Long-Haul COVID” 3 months after COVID-19. Data from a cohort of hospitalised COVID-19 survivors showed "71% had continued neurologic symptoms highlighting the importance of considering the long-haul COVID phenomena. The most common symptom was fatigue (42%) followed by PTSD symptoms (29%)."