For long COVID sufferers, feelings of fatigue, breathing difficulties, and other debilitating symptoms persist for weeks or months after infection with SARS-CoV-2. According to one estimate, up to 60 percent of people who’ve had COVID-19 still have symptoms six months later, and the condition can arise even after mild cases of the respiratory disease. The reason why remains largely a mystery.
Two new studies are finally providing some answers. The first, published in Cell on Monday (January 24), followed 200 patients over two to three months following their COVID-19 diagnoses. The researchers determined four biological factors that they say are associated with whether a person will develop long COVID. These factors, the researchers suggest, could point to ways to prevent or treat long COVID—also known as post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC)—if identified early in an infection.
The first factor is the level of RNA in the blood at diagnosis, which ...
