February 12, 2024

By Greg Richter

National patient study identifies four categories of long COVID, and found potential target for future COVID-19 therapies.

Roughly a quarter of U.S. adults who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 report having experienced, or are currently experiencing, three or more months of COVID symptoms, such as dizziness, headache, brain fog, and/or other symptoms, according to October 2023 data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Household Pulse Survey. The condition is known as Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 or “long COVID.” And among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, that number increases to roughly half.

Many hospitalized COVID-19 patients report a range of symptoms – fatigue, cough, trouble breathing and more. Now a new study from researchers at Drexel University’s College of Medicine, and additional colleagues from the NationalInstitute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-funded national “IMmunoPhenotyping Assessment in a COVID-19 Cohort” (IMPACC), gives clinical providers insights to help patients anticipate what they may or may not experience down the road with the disease. It also gives providers more confidence when they set out a care plan for hospitalized patients aimed to help prevent long COVID, such as determining which patients need antivirals early after disease onset.

See Drexel News Blog for full article.