COVID-19: Post-recovery Manifestations

Abstract

Background Post-COVID-19 syndrome, also known as long COVID, is a disorder that has many characteristics, one of which is chronic fatigue following acute infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Methodology We distributed a web-based survey among patients diagnosed with COVID-19 across the world and collected 190 responses regarding their demographics, histories, COVID-19 infection courses, and common symptoms. Results We found that about 85.3% of the patients experienced some form of symptom following recovery from the infection. Among the reported symptoms, 59% of patients experienced fatigue or lethargy, 48.9% reported decreased stamina, 32.6% reported shortness of breath, 16.8% had a persistent cough, and 23.7% experienced anxiety following recovery from COVID-19. Conclusions Reported symptoms closely resembled myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS); however, a deeper biochemical understanding of ME/CFS is required to confirm causation. Copyright © 2023, Shaikh et al.