eFM News

A new study released Friday highlights the "significant burden" of COVID-19 on patients in the aftermath of the initial disease.

Researchers tracked 128 participants at an Irish hospital and found that 52 percent reported persistent fatigue when they were assessed an average of 10 weeks after "clinical recovery" from the disease, regardless of how serious their initial infection was.

The preliminary study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, included 71 people who had been admitted to hospital and 57 hospital employees who had mild cases of the disease.

They also found that women and those with a previous history of anxiety or depression were more likely to experience ongoing fatigue.

One of the authors, Dr. Liam Townsend, of St. James's Hospital and Trinity Translational Medicine Institute at Trinity College Dublin, pointed out that while the presenting features of COVID-19 have been well-characterized, "the medium and long-term consequences of infection remain unexplored."

This comes as patient groups and doctors call for more research into the lingering effects of the new coronavirus, which has sickened more than 30 million people across the world and killed more than 940,000.