Fatigue, shortness of breath last a year for many Covid-19 patients, study reveals

One of the largest studies yet on long COVID found that some patients remained afflicted with either fatigue or shortness of breath more than a year after being hospitalized with the coronavirus. The Chinese study was published in the British medical journal The Lancet on Friday.

The study found that half of the patients still showed one symptom or another, most commonly fatigue or muscle weakness, a year on.

One in three patients reported shortness of breath more than 12 months later, and that number went up among people who had fallen severely ill because of the virus.

Additionally, women were 43% more likely than men to suffer from the symptoms, and twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression, according to the study.

The Lancet also published an editorial along with the study. It said that with no proven treatments or even rehabilitation guidance "long COVID affected people's ability to resume normal life and their capacity to work."

The medical journal added that full recovery for patients afflicted with long COVID took more than a year. Researchers followed nearly 1,300 people who were hospitalized with COVID between January and May 2020 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first case of the disease was detected.