Photo Credit: Jikaboom

Most working-age patients with post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) did not recover in the second year of their illness, according to a study published in PLoS Medicine. The analysis included data from 982 participants (aged 18 to 65 years) with PCS and 576 matched people without PCS at 6 to 12 months after acute infection (phase 1) and at another 8.5 months (phase 2). In phase 2, 67.6% of the patients with PCS in phase 1 developed persistent PCS, while 78.5% of the recovered participants remained free of health problems related to PCS. Improvement was associated with mild acute index infection, previous full-time employment, educational status, no specialist consultation, and not attending a rehabilitation program. In contrast, the development of new PCS symptoms among those initially recovered was associated with an intercurrent secondary severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection and educational status. The predominant symptom clusters persisted (fatigue/exhaustion, neurocognitive disturbance, chest symptoms/breathlessness, and anxiety/depression/sleep problems.)