Long COVID, also termed long-haul COVID, post-COVID syndrome, and chronic COVID syndrome, is a medical condition that continues for more than four weeks after acute COVID-19. It causes a wide range of effects on the whole body, including the nervous system, respiratory system, digestive system, fatigue, anemia, mental health disorder, musculoskeletal pain, etc. Throughout the COvid-19 and long COVID, your lungs suffer the most and can get damaged permanently.
Even if a patient who had COVID did not suffer from it severely, he/she might develop a long COVID. The doctors of Top hospital in Delhi NCR say that long covid is rare but can be fatal, and if the symptoms prevail for more than four weeks, you need to consult a doctor.
Symptoms of Covid-19
The most common symptoms of Long COVID are:
- Cough
- Fever
- Fatigue
- Joint pain
- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath
Some rare symptoms that a lesser number of people develop are:
- Depression
- Muscle ache
- Fever
- Palpitations
- Headache
- Brain fog
The best doctors in NCR Delhi say that in some people, a lot more organs are affected severely and can result in the development of the following symptoms:
- Lung dysfunction
- Hair loss
- Inflammation of heart muscle
- Rashes
- Anxiety
- Memory loss
- Kidney injury
- Insomnia
Causes and risk factors
Long COVID is a new condition, and researchers are still studying its causes and risk factors. Doctors of the best lungs specialist hospital in Ghaziabad say that Long COVID can be developing because of the following reasons:
- Weakened immune system.
- Post-traumatic Stress
- Deconditioning
- Reinfection of Virus
- Immune system malfunctioning
- Permanent damage caused by the virus
Researchers have also been able to study the pattern and figure out the risk factors that decide who has a higher chance of developing Long COVID. These risk factors are:
- Age over 50 years.
- Asthma or other respiratory diseases
- Obesity
- Suffering from more than five symptoms in the first week of COVID-19 infection.
Also, men are more vulnerable to developing long COVID as compared to women because of hormonal differences and chromosomal genetics.
