Abstract
The long-term effects of COVID-19 among survivors is a matter of concern. This research aimed to study persistent symptoms in post-COVID-19 patients attending a follow-up clinic at a tertiary care hospital in Nepal. All patients, presenting to the outpatient clinic during the study duration of six weeks, with history of positive reverse transcriptase- polymerase chain reaction for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) at least two weeks prior to presentation, were included. The duration of follow-up ranged from 15 till 150 days with the mean duration of 28 days after diagnosis of COVID-19. Of 118 patients, 43 (36.4%) had a history of mild COVID-19, 15 (12.8%) had moderate, and 60 (50.8%) had severe. At the time of presentation, 97 (82.2%) patients reported that they had at least one persistent/new symptom beyond two weeks from the diagnosis of COVID-19. Dyspnea, fatigue, chest heaviness, and cough were the commonest persistent complaints in 48 (40.7%), 39 (33.1%), 33 (28%), and 32 (27.1%) patients, respectively. The findings in our study highlight the need for extended monitoring of post-COVID-19 patients following discharge, in order to understand and mitigate long-term implications of the disease.
Highlights
More than a year after reporting Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) for the first time in China, the disease is unrelenting, with more than 147 million cases and 3.1 million deaths worldwide, as of 28 April 2021 [1]
A perplexing finding noted by physicians in several parts of the world was the prevalence of long COVID unrelated to severity of illness of COVID-19, unlike other diseases, where rigorous intensive care strategies in severely ill patients were associated with long-term health implications in survivors [4]
This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted among post-COVID-19 patients who had presented to the follow-up outpatient department of a central level infectious disease government hospital, Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital (STIDH) in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal
Summary
More than a year after reporting Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) for the first time in China, the disease is unrelenting, with more than 147 million cases and 3.1 million deaths worldwide, as of 28 April 2021 [1]. Persistent/new symptoms following convalescence of the clinical disease and/or microbiological recovery have been observed in a large fraction of COVID-19 patients [2]. Post-COVID-19 patients continue to have persistent symptoms or may have new symptoms following apparent clinical recovery as a result of the consequences of organ damage during acute COVID-19 infection, neurobehavioral abnormalities due to the disease process or hospital admission and intensive care strategies. A perplexing finding noted by physicians in several parts of the world was the prevalence of long COVID unrelated to severity of illness of COVID-19, unlike other diseases, where rigorous intensive care strategies in severely ill patients were associated with long-term health implications in survivors [4]
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