A study indicates long-term health risks from COVID-19 persist, with a significant ongoing impact on mortality and health, especially for those hospitalized early during infection. The study also shows that patients hospitalized within 30 days after infection face 29% higher death risk in 3rd year compared with those not infected. New findings on long COVID — long-term effects on health experienced by many who have had COVID-19 — present a good-news, bad-news situation, according to a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St.
Louis and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care system. The bad news: COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized within the first 30 days after infection face a 29% higher risk of death in the third year compared with people who have not had the virus .
However, the three-year death risk still marks a significant decline compared with such risk at the one- and two-year marks post-infection. The findings also show that even people with mild COVID-19 were still experiencing new health problems related to the infection three years later. The good news: The increased risk of death diminishes significantly one year after a SARS-CoV-2 infection among people who were not hospitalized for the virus.
This demographic accounts for most people who have had COVID-19. The new research, published today (May 30) in the journal Nature Medicine , tracked the virus’s health effects in people three years after being infected with the original strain .
