Press release
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Many people who have COVID-19 fully recover and return to their initial state of health; however, some people have symptoms or other sequelae weeks or months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. These heterogeneous symptoms were the subject of the virtual “Workshop on post-acute sequelae of COVID-19” organized on 2 and 4 December 2020 by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), in collaboration with other institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health. An article recently published in Annals of Internal Medicine describes the workshop. More than 1,200 registered participants, including researchers, doctors, and affected community members, discussed what is known about the aftermath of COVID-19 and the lack of knowledge that needs to be addressed in future research.
The constellation of symptoms and other effects experienced by those who do not return to baseline health after COVID-19 has been reported by many names, including post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), and long or long. launch CVVID. Symptoms can be very severe and lasting and can affect many organ systems. Reported symptoms include severe fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, and shortness of breath, as well as psychological symptoms such as anxiety and depression. Long-term effects of COVID-19 have been reported in all age groups and demographics and in people with initial asymptomatic, mild, or severe COVID-19 disease. If only a small fraction of SARS-CoV-2 infections produce long-term effects, the overall burden of disease will be significant.
In addition to reviewing existing data, workshop presenters identified significant knowledge gaps. It should be noted that epidemiology is not fully characterized and will need to be expanded to identify and help groups of vulnerable people. The full clinical spectrum of postacute COVID-19 is not yet known, nor are the reasons why symptoms manifest so differently in individuals. The underlying pathophysiology is undetermined and may be due to SARS-CoV-2 itself or the immune response to infection.
Because COVID-19 is a new disease, researchers are still documenting the recovery spectrum and trying to understand the different outcomes patients may experience. People who do not return to their baseline health status have several clinical conditions that will require individualized and multidisciplinary approaches to treatment.
Workshop discussions revealed that longitudinal studies, ideally including systematic assessments of different organ systems, and including several populations, will be needed to adequately characterize postacute COVID-19. A careful study of the virus and the immune response to infection may help researchers understand how the manifestations of postacute COVID-19 arise. These research efforts will need to involve collaboration between clinicians, researchers, advocacy groups, and patient communities.
Article
A Lerner et al. Towards understanding the recovery of COVID-19: workshop of the National Institutes of Health on postacute COVID-19. Annals of Internal Medicine DOI: 10.7326 / M21-1043 (2021).
WHO
Dr. Emily Erbelding, director of NIAID’s Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID), is available for comment.
Contact
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