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British study finds almost one in seven suffer long Covid symptoms

WION Web Team
NEW DELHIUpdated: Apr 02, 2021, 08:50 AM IST
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FIle photo Photograph:(Reuters)

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The study of UK patients was based on a random sample of 21,622 participants who tested positive from swabs and were asked about their symptoms monthly.

Long-Covid symptoms are affecting a large part of the population in the UK, with about half that number saying the disease is harming their day-to-day lives, government statistics show.

People were asked to report their own symptoms and the most common ongoing problems included fatigue, a cough, headaches and muscle pain.

The Office for National Statistics said the study of over 20,000 people who had tested positive from April last year to March this year found 13.7 per cent had symptoms that lasted for at least 12 weeks.

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This was based on people's self-reported symptoms of so-called "long Covid". The list of 13 symptoms included fatigue, muscle pain and difficulty concentrating as well as loss of taste and smell.

Women were more likely (14.7 per cent) to report such long-lasting symptoms than men (12.7 per cent).

Those aged 35-49 were most likely to report symptoms at five weeks (25.6 per cent).

About 6% of the population was hesitant to take vaccines against the virus, down from 9% previously in early December.
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The study of UK patients was based on a random sample of 21,622 participants who tested positive from swabs and were asked about their symptoms monthly.

A control group who were unlikely to have been infected was also set up. It found they were eight times less likely to have such symptoms.

A larger survey of 1.1 million people self-reported long Covid over the four weeks ending March 6, 2021, the ONS said.

Ben Humberstone, Head of Health Analysis and Life Events at the ONS said this was its first analysis of new data and "our understanding of it and its quality will improve over time".

Long Covid "is an emerging phenomenon that is not yet fully understood", he added.

Britain, one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic, has recorded nearly 127,000 deaths from Covid and 4,350,266 cases.

However, the number of daily deaths and positive tests have fallen steadily amid a strong vaccination campaign.

(With inputs from agencies)