Post-COVID-19 symptoms, such as persistent cough, intermittent fever, weakness, and changes in your senses of smell or taste, may persist for weeks or even months after you recover from an acute illness. Persistent symptoms are sometimes referred to as long COVID-19. There are no tests to diagnose post-COVID conditions and people may have a wide variety of symptoms that could come from other health problems. This can make it difficult for healthcare providers to recognize post-COVID conditions. Your healthcare provider considers a diagnosis of post-COVID conditions based on your health history, even if you received a diagnosis of COVID-19 by a positive test or by symptoms or exposure, in addition to performing a medical exam.
People with post-COVID (or prolonged COVID) conditions can experience many symptoms. People with post-COVID conditions can have a wide range of symptoms that can last more than four weeks or even months after infection. Sometimes symptoms may even go away or come back. Post-COVID conditions may not affect everyone in the same way.
People with post-COVID conditions may experience health problems of different types and combinations of symptoms that occur over different periods of time. Most patients' symptoms improve slowly over time. However, for some people, post-COVID conditions can last for months, and possibly years, after COVID-19 illness and can sometimes result in disability. Some people with post-COVID conditions have symptoms that aren't explained by testing.
PICS refers to health effects that may begin when a person is in an intensive care unit (ICU) and that may persist after the person returns home. These effects may include muscle weakness, problems thinking and judging, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD external icon involves long-term reactions to a very stressful event. For people who experience PICS after a COVID-19 diagnosis, it is difficult to determine if these health problems are due to a serious illness, the virus itself, or a combination of both.
However, people suffering from post-COVID conditions can seek care from a healthcare provider to create a personal medical management plan that can help improve their symptoms and quality of life. Review these tips to prepare for an appointment with a healthcare provider for post-COVID conditions. In addition, many support groups are being organized that can help patients and their caregivers. Dr.
Joshua Septimus, associate professor of clinical medicine and medical director of Houston Methodist Primary Care Group Same Day Clinics, will help you understand what life is like after recovering from COVID-19. According to the CDC, the most common long-lasting symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, joint pain, and chest pain. Other problems include cognitive problems, difficulty concentrating, depression, muscle pain, headache, fast heartbeat, and intermittent fever. A study published in Nature last year tracked more than 4,000 patients with covid from initial infection until symptoms subsided. Approximately 13% reported that symptoms lasted more than 28 days.
That dropped to 4.5% after eight weeks and 2.3% after 12 weeks, indicating that most people with symptoms lasting longer than a month will recover in another month or two.
