The immediate effects of getting COVID aren't the only concern of contracting the virus. As case rates continue to climb, researchers are learning more about long COVID, which can cause potentially debilitating lingering symptoms or even new health conditions months after the initial COVID infection is gone. A new study may point to how to stop it.
There's still a lot we don't understand about long COVID, which is technically known by its scientific name post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, or PASC. But we do know that it is surprisingly common. As SELF reported in June, a large-scale study of COVID patients found that a month or more after testing positive, over 23% went to a doctor reporting a new health concern—which ranged from brain fog and migraines to chronic pain and skin issues. Long-COVID symptoms were more common in patients with severe COVID infections, but as the researchers noted, the lingering effects were present in over a quarter of those with a mild case and in nearly 20% of people who were asymptomatic. Since then, more large-scale research has suggested the problem might be even more common. Researchers at the Penn State College of Medicine conducted a study of more than 250,000 unvaccinated individuals. Their findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open in October, found that six months after being infected, more than half of patients reported lingering COVID symptoms.
New research published this week in the journal Cell sheds some light on why some people get long COVID and others don't. In a study of 200 COVID patients, researchers identified four factors that showed up early in a COVID infection and seemed to be predictive of long-COVID symptoms in participants: level of coronavirus RNA in the blood (a.k.a. the viral load), having type 2 diabetes, the reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus (something many people have lying dormant in their system after a childhood infection), and the presence of specific autoantibodies that mistakenly attack the body's own tissues. (As for how common long COVID symptoms were, 37% of patients in the study reported three or more long COVID symptoms two to three months after being infected, per The New York Times.)
“I think this research stresses the importance of doing measurements early in the disease course to figure out how to treat patients, even if we don’t really know how we’re going to use all that information yet,” Jim Heath, Ph.D., an author on the study and president of the Institute for Systems Biology, told the Times. In other words, the research is still early. While more data will be needed to confirm the findings and translate them into a pathway for treatment, it points to a scientific way for doctors to diagnose long COVID and potentially ultimately prevent it.
For now, the best way to prevent long COVID is to get vaccinated. As SELF previously reported, getting fully vaccinated can cut the risk of long COVID in half, according to a study conducted in the U.K. The study, which included data from more than a million people, was conducted before the booster shot was widely available, so “fully vaccinated” was defined as having either two shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one shot of the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Consider the stats on the relatively high likelihood of developing long COVID yet another reason not to intentionally get COVID in an effort to boost your immunity. Get boosted and wear a mask when needed to protect yourself and others.
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