Long Covid linked with ‘more than 200 symptoms’

Long Covid is associated with more than 200 symptoms ranging from fatigue and aching joints to brain and heart conditions, a major new study has found.

In the largest international study to date on the long-term impact of coronavirus, researchers led by a team at University College London spoke to thousands of people, with many sufferers reporting symptoms persisting for many months.

The most common symptoms were fatigue (experienced by 98 per cent of respondents), post-exertional malaise (the worsening of symptoms after physical or mental exertion, experienced by 89 per cent), and cognitive dysfunction, often called brain fog (experienced by 85 per cent).

Other symptoms included visual hallucinations, tremors, itchy skin, changes to the menstrual cycle, sexual dysfunction, heart palpitations, bladder control issues, shingles, memory loss, blurred vision, diarrhoea, and tinnitus.

The study, which is published in the Lancet’s EClinicalMedicine journal, involved 3,762 participants from 56 countries – 1,020 of whom were confirmed cases and 2,742 who were suspected of having the illness.

Researchers identified a total of 203 symptoms in 10 organ systems, with 66 symptoms tracked for seven months.