New Research Reveals Hair Loss, Reduced Libido And Other Long COVID Symptoms

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New Delhi: There’s more to long COVID symptoms than fatigue and shortness of breath. Among the less well-known are hair loss and reduced libido. Other symptoms include chest pain, fever, bowel incontinence, erectile dysfunction and limb swelling.

People who had been diagnosed with COVID are more likely to report 62 symptoms, only 20 of which are included in the World Health Organisation’s clinical case definition for long COVID.

A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine has identified 62 symptoms associated with long COVID. It also explored some of the factors linked to an increased risk of developing long COVID.  The study was carried out by Shamil Haroon,  Associate Clinical Professor and Anuradhaa Subramanian, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham.

Much of the initial work undertaken to understand long COVID has been among people who were hospitalised, but most people infected with COVID have been managed in primary care. Therefore, relatively less is known about long COVID in people with typically milder initial infections.

The study also found that younger age, female sex, belonging to certain ethnic minority groups, lower socioeconomic status, smoking, obesity, and a wide range of health conditions were all associated with a higher risk of reporting persistent symptoms more than 12 weeks after COVID infection.