Long Covid keeps taking lives - study

Long Covid played a part in the death of 3,544 people in the United States, according to a study conducted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Vital Statistics which analysed death certificates up to 7 October 2022.

While those deaths represent a small fraction of the 1 million deaths from the coronavirus, they reinforce the danger of ignoring the lingering symptoms that many patients say their physicians have dismissed.

“A lot of people think of long Covid as associated with long-term illness,” the Washington Post cited Farida Ahmad, a health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and lead author of the study. “This shows it can be a cause of death.”

Deaths from the syndrome peaked in February, and while CDC data show that women are more likely than men to develop long Covid, the study found that men accounted for a slightly higher percentage of long-Covid deaths.

Almost 80% of the deaths occurred among non-Hispanic Whites, while Black people were the second most-affected group at about 10% of the total. The death rate was highest — at 15 in every 100,000 people — among American Indian and Alaska Native people, and lowest among Asians.

Most of the documented long-Covid deaths occurred in older people, with adults between 75 and 84 years old accounting for almost 30% of the deaths, closely followed by adults 85 and older.

Bloomberg recalled that SARS-CoV-2 has killed more than one million people in the US, according to CDC statistics. Long-Covid, which has no approved treatments, comprises immune, cardiac and brain disturbances among others, and it has already affected as many as 23 million people in the US at varying levels of severity. 

Numerous academic institutions and research organizations are studying the disease to find the best ways for prevention and treatment, as it still remains a mystery, the news agency noted.

The study reflects the need for further research into long Covid and potential treatments, experts said. As many as 1 in 13 adults, or 7.5% of the U.S. population, are experiencing symptoms that last three or more months after contracting the virus, according to the CDC.

There is some evidence that long Covid is less common in people who have been vaccinated, but the condition can appear in people who have suffered mild or severe coronavirus infections.

Symptoms of long Covid can include the moderate, such tiredness and brain fog, to the more serious, including respiratory and heart issues.

Cover photo: ©2021 Tang Ming Tung, Getty Images