A new University of Birmingham research based on the anonymized health records of 2.4 million people in the UK, published in the journal Nature Medicine, has found several new symptoms that can follow a Covid-19 infection.
Among the wide range of so far unrecognized potential long-term effects of Covid-19 are hair loss, reduced libido, and ejaculation difficulties may be symptoms of long covid, defined by the WHO as a set of symptoms that usually develop within three months of a COVID infection and last at least two months with no alternative explanation.
The most common long Covid symptoms. according to a peer-reviewed study in the Nature Medicine journal, include loss of smell, fatigue, and shortness of breath.
University of Birmingham’s Anuradhaa Subramanian, the lead author of the paper, said that by exploring the effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection on 115 symptoms, they’ve determined 62 symptoms – some of which are completely new – that are statistically significantly associated with COVID at 12 weeks or more after infection.
The study compared the health records of almost 500,000 Covid-19 patients, including people that were not admitted to the hospital, with those of around 1.9 million people who had never tested positive for the virus.
Though the condition can be triggered by other infections or stress, the researchers are still not at clear how exactly SARS-CoV-2 infection may lead to hair loss, while the problems with sexual function – including ejaculation difficulties – suggest that Covid-19 is a chronic illness since patients with other chronic illnesses frequently experience sexual dysfunction.
Dr. Shamil Haroon, the study’s co-author, and the University of Birmingham’s associate clinical professor in public health, stressed that the long Covid symptoms are extremely broad and cannot be fully accounted for by other factors such as lifestyle risk factors or chronic health conditions.
He also noted that women, people of African ascent, and some other ethnic groups. people from poorer backgrounds, smokers, and overweight people are among the groups that are most likely to suffer from long Covid.
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