NEWS: Long Covid linked to blood inflammation

As reported by BBC News, UK study reveals long Covid patients show ongoing blood inflammation, offering clues for potential treatments and understanding the condition’s persistence

It found the presence of certain proteins increased the risk of specific symptoms, such as fatigue, in people sick enough to need hospital treatment.

It is unclear whether milder cases of Covid have the same effect on the body.

A test remains a long way off – but the findings may prompt future trials.

Long Covid – symptoms lasting at least 12 weeks after a Covid infection – is thought to have affected millions of people around the world.

Some of the most common symptoms are:

• extreme tiredness
• feeling short of breath
• problems with memory and concentration – or brain fog

Others can include:

• sleeping problems
• loss of smell
• anxiety

The chances of developing long-term symptoms do not seem linked to how ill people were when first infected – many people who had mild symptoms say they are affected.

The UK’s largest long Covid study, led by Imperial College London, followed up 650 hospital patients with severe Covid.

Six months later, 426 said they still had at least one long Covid symptom while 233 had completely recovered.

And those with long Covid showed evidence of a continuing and active pattern of inflammatory proteins in their blood.

The researchers said the presence of these chemicals in the blood, which are usually a sign of the body fighting off infection, was unusual when the initial infection occurred so long before.

Tracy Evans, 59, from Bridlington, N Yorks, worked as a care assistant and support worker before catching Covid in early 2021.

She spent three months in hospital and six weeks in intensive care, and still finds it traumatic to think of that time.

“I was so close to death, because they were going to turn me off,” she says.

Tracy has been unable to work since because of continuing symptoms, including severe fatigue and brain fog.