Tag : Unvaccinated

London: Around 1 in 6 unvaccinated individuals say they are still experiencing health effects of Covid-19 up to two years after infection, finds a study. Most people who have Covid-19 recover soon after the initial phase of the disease, but others experience persistent health problems (known as long Covid), which can impact quality of life and ability to work. The findings, published by The BMJ, show that 17 per cent of participants did not return to normal health and 18 per cent reported Covid related symptoms 24 months after initial infection. Compared with people who did not have an infection, those with Covid had excess risks for both physical problems, such as altered taste or smell (9.8 per cent), malaise after exertion (9.4 per cent), and shortness of breath (7.8 per cent), and mental health issues, such as reduced concentration (8.3 per cent) and anxiety (4 per cent) at month six. "Persisting health issues create significant challenges for affected individuals and pose an important burden on population health and healthcare services," said researchers Universities of Zurich, in Switzerland, and California-San Francisco, in US. They called for clinical trials "to establish effective interventions to reduce the burden of post-Covid-19 conditions". In the study, researchers looked at patterns of recovery and symptom persistence over two years in 1,106 unvaccinated adults (average age 50) with a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between August 6, 2020 and January 19, 2021 and 628 adults (average age 65) randomly selected from the general population who had not had the virus. Participants provided information on 23 potential long Covid symptoms six, 12, 18, and 24 months after infection. Overall, 55 per cent of participants reported re ...