The long-term adverse events and persisting clinical symptomatology post COVID-19 infection among the healthcare workers of a tertiary care hospital in West Bengal

Abstract

COVID -19, a global pandemic, has dominated every person’s life worldwide. The clinical presentation of COVID-19 ranges from asymptomatic, mild symptomatic to fulminant and fatal cases, having consequences for many organ systems. In a cross-sectional study, 128 healthcare workers of a tertiary care medical college hospital, 4 weeks following the COVID infection agreed to participate in the study. Self-developed subject data sheet and the self-reporting symptoms tool based on the WHO case report form were used for data collection. A significant number of health care workers (HCWs) had long COVID symptomatology in terms of constitutional, muscular-skeletal, respiratory, otolaryngology, and CNS symptoms. The commonly experienced symptoms were myalgia (45.3%), malaise (39%), fatigue and tiredness (69.5%), loss of taste (21.1%), loss of smell (20.3%) and night sweats (11.7%), lack of sleep (20.3%), and anxiety (12.5%). The cardiovascular and integumentary were the less affected organ systems. About one-third of the HCWs reported that symptoms like myalgia, malaise and tiredness got worse after physical activity (29.7%). Aggravation of symptoms with any form of mental activity was reported in 11.7% of the study participants. One in every ten HCWs (12.5%) had reported not being able to perform daily activities that they were doing before getting COVID-19 infection. However, all resumed their job after the recovery. Long COVID symptoms were reported by a significant number of HCWs, necessitating the need for the establishment of follow-up clinics for the care of healthcare workers.