JULY 26 — Long Covid is a range of symptoms that continue for weeks or months beyond the initial Covid-19 illness.  Long Covid can happen to any Covid-19 patients, even patients who are not hospitalized and who have mild illness can experience persistent or late symptoms. Some patients develop medical complications that may have lasting health effects.  

From the preliminary results of our study on Long Covid among Covid survivors (n=487), about one third perceived that they were not in good health currently compared to before Covid-19 infection. 

Upon recovery from Covid, the most common symptoms reported were fatigue (72.3 per cent), followed by difficulty in thinking / concentrating (59.6 per cent), joint/muscle pain (47.1 per cent), insomnia (45.5 per cent), feeling anxious (42.9 per cent) and depressed (39.3 per cent).  Other common symptoms were cough (38.4 per cent), feeling sick (35.8 per cent), loss of smell /taste (35.3 per cent), increased heartbeat (33.2 per cent), difficult breathing (33 per cent), weight loss (31.9 per cent), dizziness on standing (31.8 per cent) and headache (30.6 per cent).

Thirty per cent of them experienced some of the above symptoms up to six weeks post recovery, while ten to twenty per cent and about ten per cent respondents experienced these symptoms up to three months or six months respectively.

A health worker tends to a patient at the Covid-19 Low-Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centre (PKRC) at the Malaysia Agriculture Expo Park (MAEPS) 2 in Serdang May 19, 2021. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

About one third of the respondents complained that these symptoms affected their work productivity where they had to reduce their work hours (64.3 per cent) or take leave (30.8 per cent) from work. 

Do you as a Covid survivor had similar or different experience?  Do participate in our survey in order for a better representation of Covid survivors, which will yield more accurate and valid findings.  This survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete and it is anonymous.   

Link to survey: https://redcap.link/scwzmfna

For those who are lucky not to get infected with Covid-19, do practice all SOPs and take vaccination in order to protect you and your love ones.  To avoid Long Covid is to avoid being infected with Covid-19. 

* Prepared by Professor Dr Moy Foong Ming, Department of Social & Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.