May 14, 2024

Long COVID and Post-Flu Syndrome: A Surprising Similarity in Severity

Shortness of breath, a cough, heart palpitations, headaches, and severe tiredness are among the most widespread symptoms.
The material has actually been peer reviewed by the congress selection committee. There is no full paper readily available at this stage. The manuscript is presently under consideration by a peer examined journal.

Long COVID in Australia– a review of the literature, Summary– Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (aihw.gov.au).

Research in Queensland, Australia, suggests that long COVIDs influence on health systems may be because of the volume of SARS-CoV-2 infections instead of sign severity, as it has comparable incidence and severity to seasonal influenza. The research study has limitations, such as unmeasured elements and prospective influence of vaccination or the Omicron variation on long COVID severity.
Comparison with influenza in the Australian state of Queensland throughout the Omicron wave in 2022 suggests Long COVIDs problem on health systems might not stem from severity, however from volume.
In the highly immunized population of Queensland exposed to the Omicron variant, long COVID appears to manifest as a post-viral syndrome of no higher occurrence or severity than seasonal influenza, according to brand-new research being presented at this years European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark (April 15-18).
The study by Queensland Health scientists recommends that despite the resemblance of clinical outcomes after COVID-19 and influenza, long COVIDs effect on public health systems is likely to come from the volume of those contaminated with SARS-CoV-2, instead of the intensity of long COVID symptoms.

Meeting: ECCMID 2023.
The product has been peer examined by the congress selection committee. The manuscript is currently under consideration by a peer reviewed journal.

By European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
April 16, 2023

Long Covid is a complex, multi-system condition that develops during or after having COVID-19, and is used to describe signs that continue for 4-12 weeks and longer-term sequelae beyond 12 weeks referred to as post-COVID syndrome. Long COVID has the potential for a considerable impact on society, from increased healthcare costs to economic and performance losses.
Shortness of breath, a cough, heart palpitations, headaches, and serious fatigue are amongst the most common symptoms.
To understand more about long COVIDs potential influence on the Australian state of Queensland, scientists surveyed grownups (aged 18 years or older) with PCR-confirmed infection for COVID-19 and influenza in Queensland in between 12 and 25 June, 2022.
Lab reporting for COVID-19 and influenza is tape-recorded in the Queensland Department of Healths Notifiable Conditions System (NoCS), so the study is a census of all people in Queensland who tested positive to COVID or influenza during that period.
At the time, more than 90% of the population of Queensland had actually been vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to the community first skilled prevalent transmission of the Omicron variation in 2022.
During concurrent waves of Omicron and influenza that occurred in mid-2022, 2,195 adults detected with COVID-19 and 951 grownups diagnosed with influenza were followed for 12 weeks and asked about continuous signs and functional problems using a questionnaire provided by SMS link to a study.
Of those diagnosed with Omicron, a 5th (21%, 469) reported ongoing symptoms at 12 weeks and 4% (90) reported having moderate to severe practical constraints in everyday life.
Similarly, around a 5th (23%, 214) of grownups detected with influenza reported continuous signs and 4% (42) reported moderate to serious practical limitations.
After controlling for prominent elements consisting of age, sex, First Nations status, vaccination status, and socio-economic profile (based upon postal code), the analysis found no evidence to suggest that adults with Omicron were most likely to have continuous signs or moderate to serious functional limitations at 12 weeks after their medical diagnosis than adults who had influenza.
Remarkably, the analyses recommend that younger age and non-indigenous populations were more likely to report moderate to severe functional limitations after influenza than Omicron.
” In our highly vaccinated population, the general public health effect of Long COVID does not appear to result from any special property of SARS-CoV-2. Rather, the impact arises from the large number of individuals infected over a short time period,” says Dr. John Gerrard, Queenslands Chief Health Officer.
Despite the crucial findings, the research study has several constraints including that it was observational and cant prove causation and it cant rule out the possibility that other unmeasured aspects such as underlying disease and influenza vaccination status might have affected the outcomes. The researchers also note the growing proof that the danger of long COVID has been lower during the Omicron wave compared with earlier SARS-CoV-2 versions, and due to the fact that the large bulk of individuals in Queensland were vaccinated when the Omicron variant emerged, the lower seriousness of long COVID might be due to vaccination and/or the Omicron version.
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