Long-Covid — continued illness post Covid-19 — is common after other respiratory infections, according to a study.A team of researchers from the University of Oxford in the UK analysed data from 190,000 participants. They classified them into: people hospitalised with Covid and those hospitalised with other lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs). These were then compared with a reference group with no LRTI hospitalisations.
Participants completed surveys reporting on 45 different physical and psychological symptoms observed across the ear, nose, and throat; respiratory; neurological; gastrointestinal; and musculoskeletal systems.
The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, showed that people hospitalised with Covid had higher risks of 23 out of 45 symptoms. Similarly, those hospitalised for non-Covid LRTIs had 18 out of 45.