News: Long Haul Covid study

[Arcadia]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/06/16/covid-vaccine-variant-cdc-mask-restrictions/7708531002/#gpd-1623838991804

“Study: Almost 25% who get COVID-19 develop long-term symptoms

A new report by FAIR Health shows that almost a quarter of coronavirus patients develop long-lasting symptoms or Long COVID. The study found that some symptoms were more prevalent in certain age groups or demographics. Older patients had a higher chance of developing high cholesterol, while younger patients were more likely to develop gastrointestinal issues after diagnosis.

The journal analyzed nearly 2 million private health care claim records of patients with COVID-19, excluding those with chronic conditions such as cancer and HIV”

@Mrs Tiggywinkle@Not_a_Number
https://s3.amazonaws.com/media2.fairhealth.org/whitepaper/asset/A Detailed Study of Patients with Long-Haul COVID--An Analysis of Private Healthcare Claims--A FAIR Health White Paper.pdf

“Using longitudinal data from a database of over 34 billion private healthcare claim records, FAIR Health studied a total of 1,959,982 COVID-19 patients for the prevalence of post-COVID conditions 30 days or more after their initial diagnosis with COVID-19. To FAIR Health’s knowledge, this is the largest population of COVID-19 patients so far studied for post-COVID conditions. The patients’ post-COVID conditions were analyzed, with the most common conditions identified. Particular attention was given to age and gender, mental health conditions and death. Among the key findings:
• Of patients who had COVID-19, 23.2 percent had at least one post-COVID condition.
• Post-COVID conditions were found to a greater extent in patients who had more severe cases of COVID-19, but also in a substantial share of patients whose cases lacked symptoms. Of patients
who were hospitalized with COVID-19, the percentage that had a post-COVID condition was 50 percent; of patients who were symptomatic but not hospitalized, 27.5 percent; and of patients who were asymptomatic, 19 percent.
• The five most common post-COVID conditions across all ages, in order from most to least common, were pain, breathing difficulties, hyperlipidemia, malaise and fatigue, and hypertension.
• The ranking of the most common post-COVID conditions varied by age group. For example, in the pediatric population (0-18), pain and breathing difficulties were the top two conditions, as in the all-ages cohort, but intestinal issues, rather than hyperlipidemia, were the third most common.
• Most of the post-COVID conditions that were evaluated were associated more with females than males. In the case of 12 conditions, however, males more commonly had the condition diagnosed than females. For example, of patients who had post-COVID cardiac inflammation, 52 percent were male and 48 percent female. By age, the largest share (25.4 percent) with this condition was found in a young cohort—individuals aged 19-29.
• Of the four mental health conditions evaluated as post-COVID conditions, anxiety was associated with the highest percentage of patients after COVID-19 in all age groups. Depression was second, adjustment disorders third and tic disorders fourth.”

[Arcadia]

11 minutes ago, Plum said:

But what are they going to do with this information?

People out there have lingering symptoms and no answers. I'd really like to see a national plan to address this. 

https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/statements/nih-makes-first-infrastructure-awards-support-research-post-covid-conditions

https://recovercovid.org
“June 10, 2021

NIH makes first infrastructure awards to support research on post COVID conditions

This past February I announced the launch of a new research initiative to understand why some individuals who have had symptomatic COVID-19 don’t fully recover (often referred to as Long COVID) or develop new or returning symptoms after recovery. These conditions have been referred to by the research community as post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection or PASC. In fact, the initiative was initially called the PASC Initiative, but we’ve since renamed it to articulate the goals of the initiative more clearly. It is now called the RECOVER Initiative: REsearching COVID to Enhance Recovery. We are seeing these conditions affect all age ranges, even children, and the symptoms are often debilitating. Symptoms can include fatigue, shortness of breath, “brain fog,” sleep disorders, fevers, gastrointestinal symptoms, anxiety, and depressions, and can persist for months. Calls for research applications were issued in February, and after a concerted effort by many across NIH, I’m pleased to announce that we’ve made our first awards to support infrastructure and core resource development. Additional awards will be announced soon. Building the research support infrastructure is the first step before we can launch research studies including new randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials, which we expect to make in the weeks and months ahead.

The New York University Grossman School of Medicine was awarded just over $14 million in support of the Clinical Science Core (CSC), which will take the lead in building the RECOVER research consortium, harmonizing and coordinating data within the consortium, and developing methods for monitoring protocols, including recruitment, data quality, and safety measures to identify adverse events. The CSC also will guide communication and engagement efforts with key stakeholders, including patients and healthcare providers.

The Biostatistics Center at Massachusetts General Hospital was awarded more than $8.6 million in support of the Data Resource Core (DRC), which will help enable tracking and searchability of results across all sources of data, from clinical studies to electronic health records. In addition, the DRC will provide expertise in statistical analyses and play a key role in ensuring data standardization, access, and sharing among RECOVER projects.

Input from people who have been directly affected by long-term effects of COVID-19 is critical for informing the research direction of the initiative and improve the lives of those suffering from the long-term effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. That’s why we hosted the first in a series of listening sessions with the community on June 2. A recording of this meeting is available on https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=42174. In addition, those interested in following the initiative can keep up with progress and sign up for updates on the new RECOVER website at recovercovid.org(link is external).

Over the next several weeks and months, NIH will make additional awards to ramp up research efforts and launch clinical trials to improve our understanding of this debilitating condition and identify potential treatments to help the hundreds of thousands of people who are affected.“

[Laura Corin]

23 minutes ago, Plum said:

But what are they going to do with this information?

It must be really hard. Governments need to publicise the issue. Vaccination is not just about avoiding hospitalisation. 

Edited June 16, 2021 by Laura Corin

[Innisfree]

I'm so sorry, @Plum. I hope they can figure something out. 

[Alicia64]

@Plum I am so, so sorry you guys are going through this.

I don't mean this question to be rude at all, I've lived in both places. Are you in or near a large city? I didn't get properly diagnosed w/ something until I saw a doctor at Emory in Atlanta.

Again, that sounds so awful.

[Bootsie]

I have read the study and am trying to determine what conclusions can be drawn.  The headlines suggest that  25% of those who have COVID have a condition 30 days or more later.  But, in reading the study, there is a lot of description of these conditions by age group, but not relative to the incidence of those conditions in the general population.  For only a few of the conditions are odds ratios given.  For the cardiac inflamation, only one age group has an odds ratio greater than 1; for other age groups it is less than 1.  Does that mean that although a percentage of people in that age group who have COVID have cardiac inflamation more than 30 days out, that percentage is actually less than the percentage of people randomly who would have cardiac inflamation?  

[Penelope]

I think this article is based on the same study that was also profiled in the New York Times. The one that shows a correlation with health visits for high cholesterol after Covid?

 If so, it’s been criticized as not a very good study, due to lack of control group and other issues. 
 

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by Penelope

[Pen]

@PlumI think variants on what you described may be more common than people realize with various illnesses and vaccine long term effects that end up affecting neurological pathways and resulting in pain —possibly often in reverse to what you described where a migraine then leads into pain elsewhere or even a sense of hair and scalp hurting, but it also could be that there’s some connection like knee being touched that others with similar situations just haven’t figured out. 
 

Various names for things that may have overlapping allodynia can include “fibromyalgia “ and the pain parts of “chronic fatigue syndrome “ which before Covid were often catchalls if other diseases were not diagnosed; autoimmune conditions (which I realize you say he was tested for and does not have), particularly ms; and peripheral neuropathies; chronic Lyme— it sounds anyway more or less typical of what might be described when at support group meetings for various of these chronic problems.  In addition there were online reports from a UK doctor of strange pain results following cv vaccines, but they have of course been taken down. And I cannot recall his name now.

 If standard approaches do not work, and if more relief is needed than available from wearing shorts, you may want to seek alternative approaches, patient forums, and so on.   You may want to look at other conditions that include allodynia as a feature, and what has been found about them. 

 

https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2021/03/12/key-genes-long-covid-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/