Long COVID: Symptoms, Causes, and Risk Factors
A major new NIH initiative has been announced to identify the causes and ultimately the means of prevention and treatment of " Long COVID ." Symptoms Acute COVID-19 is a highly inflammatory illness . Most people with COVID-19 recover within two weeks. Some, as reported in [30], with so-called Long Covid (symptoms lasting longer than three weeks ), continue to experience excessive fatigue, breathlessness, headache, insomnia, muscle fatigue and pains, chest pains, persistent cough, intermittent fevers and brain fog. Causes In the post-acute phase, Inflammation Immune activation Long-term dysregulation of virus-specific immune responses have been consistently identified in peripheral blood. These immune responses have been associated with a variety of factors including: Clotting dysfunction Reactivation of latent viral infections such as Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) Autoimmune responses Importantly, there is a growing body of evidence that persistent SARS-Co...