Persistent COVID, After Two Years of Overcoming the Acute Infection by SARS-Cov-2, Havana, Cuba, 2022

Abstract

Introduction: Persistent COVID is considered the lack of return to a usual state of health after an acute illness due to COVID-19. Objective: To describe the presence of symptoms of Persistent COVID in affected patients two years after the infection was overcome. Methods: A prospective cohort study was carried out in 138 patients residing in Havana and Artemisa, who suffered from COVID-19 (44 mild, 87 moderate, 5 severe, 2 critical) in the period from March to June 2020, first Pandemic outbreak in Cuba. From July 2020 to July 2022, five interviews were conducted with the participants (3, 7, 12, 18, and 24 months) to determine the presence of reported symptoms of Persistent COVID. Results: 62% of the patients suffered Persistent COVID four weeks after their clinical discharge. The most reported persistent symptoms were: respiratory distress (82.6%), muscle weakness (78.2%), headache (73.9%), fatigue (65.2%), and anosmia (52.2%). One year later, only 23.2% of the cases maintained persistent COVID. At 18 months, this persistence in 8% of the cases was the majority among severe and critical. Two years after suffering from the disease, the percentage of those affected remained the same as at 18 months, with a slight improvement in some patients. Persistent COVID was more frequent in people with comorbidities and over 40 years of age. Conclusions: The presence of Persistent COVID is not exclusive to symptomatic patients for acute infection. The severity of persistent symptoms and their duration show a proportional relationship with severity, which points to a more severe and prolonged Persistent COVID the more severe the acute phase of the disease was suffered.