LETTERS: Long Covid is a range of symptoms that continue for weeks or months beyond the initial Covid-19 illness.
Long Covid can happen to any Covid-19 patient. Even those who are not hospitalised and who have mild illness can experience persistent or late symptoms.
Some patients develop medical complications that may have lasting health effects.
From the preliminary results of our study on Long Covid among Covid survivors (n=487), about one third perceived that they were not in good health compared with before the Covid-19 infection.
Upon recovery from Covid, the most common symptoms reported were fatigue (72.3 per cent), followed by difficulty in thinking and concentrating (59.6 per cent), joint/muscle pain (47.1 per cent), insomnia (45.5 per cent), anxiety (42.9 per cent) and depression (39.3 per cent).
Other common symptoms were cough (38.4 per cent), feeling sick (35.8 per cent), loss of smell/taste (35.3 per cent), increased heartbeat (33.2 per cent), difficulties breathing (33 per cent), weight loss (31.9 per cent), dizziness when standing up (31.8 per cent) and headache (30.6 per cent).
Thirty per cent of patients experienced some of these symptoms up to six weeks post recovery, while 10 to 20 per cent and about 10 per cent of respondents experienced these symptoms up to three months or six months, respectively.
Also, about one third of the respondents complained that these symptoms affected their work productivity, where they had to reduce their work hours (64.3 per cent) or take leave (30.8 per cent) from work.
Do you, as a Covid survivor, have similar or different experience? Do participate in our survey to get a better representation of Covid survivors, which will yield more accurate and valid findings.
This survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete and it is anonymous. Link to the survey site at https://redcap.link/scwzmfna.
For those who are lucky not to get infected with Covid-19, do adhere to all the standard operating procedures and be vaccinated to protect you and your loved ones.
Lastly, the best way to prevent Long Covid is to avoid being infected with Covid-19.
PROFESSOR DR MOY FOONG MING
Department of Social & Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times