Long COVID: what is known and what gaps need to be addressed

Benjamin Krishna; Mark Wills; Nyaradzai Sithole

doi:10.1093/bmb/ldad016

Long COVID: what is known and what gaps need to be addressed

Br Med Bull. 2023 Sep 12;147(1):6-19. doi: 10.1093/bmb/ldad016.

Authors

Benjamin Krishna^{1

2}, Mark Wills^{1

2}, Nyaradzai Sithole^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID), Cambridge CB2 0AW, UK.
² Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK.
³ Department of Infectious Diseases, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK.

Abstract

Introduction: Long COVID is a chronic condition that follows after acute COVID-19 and is characterized by a wide range of persistent, cyclic symptoms.

Sources of data: PubMed search for publications featuring 'Long COVID' or 'post-acute sequelae of COVID-19'.

Areas of agreement: Long COVID occurs frequently post-acute COVID-19, with a majority of people experiencing at least one symptom (such as cough, fatigue, myalgia, anosmia and dyspnoea) 4 weeks after infection.

Areas of controversy: The specific symptoms and the minimum duration of symptoms required to be defined as Long COVID.

Growing points: There is a consistent reduction in Long COVID incidence amongst vaccinated individuals, although the extent of this effect remains unclear.

Areas timely for developing research: There is an urgent need to understand the causes of Long COVID, especially extreme fatigue more than 6 months after infection. We must understand who is at risk and whether reinfections similarly risk Long COVID.

Keywords: Long COVID; PASC; causes; symptoms; treatments.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / complications
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Disease Progression
Fatigue / etiology
Humans
Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding