WVXU: A mounting number of COVID patients continue to report lingering aftereffects
UC expert says long-haul COVID-19 patients can experience symptoms for as long as 18 months
More and more people who contract COVID-19 are experiencing symptoms for an extended period of time. In a story on this produced by WVXU, Richard Becker, MD, professor and director, UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute and UC Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease, who runs a long COVID clinic at UC Medical Center, said some patients are seeing symptoms last as long as a year and a half.
Richard Becker, MD, professor and director, UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute and UC Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease/Photo/Colleen Kelley/UC Creative + Brand
"We have patients who have been hospitalized and then either their recovery is very long or they seem to have a change in symptoms that represent what we call post-COVID conditions," Becker said. "I would say of the several hundred people that we’ve seen in our clinic, a majority of them have had mild or moderate intensity symptoms, but then they have varied symptoms, up to 100 different kinds of symptoms that can last for three, six, nine, 12, 18 months."
Becker said one ongoing unknown is whether or not these patients are contagious.
"We don't know the answer to that," Becker said. "We believe that people are not contagious, but there is certainly a great deal of thought being put into having reservoirs of virus within the body that continue to generate symptoms through triggering of the immune response.
Lead photo/Colleen Kelley/UC Creative + Brand
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