Living with COVID: NIHR publishes dynamic themed review into ‘ongoing COVID’

Living with COVID: NIHR publishes dynamic themed review into ‘ongoing COVID’ The National Institute for Health Research Centre for Engagement and Dissemination has today published its first dynamic themed review of the scientific evidence on, and lived experience of, long-term ‘ongoing’ COVID-19.

The National Institute for Health Research Centre for Engagement and Dissemination has today published its first dynamic themed review of the scientific evidence on, and lived experience of, long-term ‘ongoing’ COVID-19.

‘Living with COVID’ draws on the most up-to-date expert consensus and published evidence, as well as the lived experience of both post-hospitalised and non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients, to better understand the impact of ongoing effects of COVID19, how health and social care services should respond, and what future research questions might be.

The review’s findings include:

• Ongoing COVID may not be one syndrome but possibly up to four different syndromes.
• A common theme is that symptoms arise in one physiological system then abate only for symptoms to arise in a different system.
• A working diagnosis recognised by healthcare services, employers and government agencies would facilitate patient access to much needed support and provide the basis for planning appropriate services.
• There are powerful stories that ongoing COVID symptoms are experienced by people of all ages, and people from all backgrounds. We cannot assume that groups who are at low risk of life threatening disease and death during acute infections are also at low risk of ongoing COVID.

Symptoms - what the research so far tells us

The review finds that, while we are at an early stage of understanding the disease, a number of small surveys are reporting remarkably similar findings, with a wide range of recurring symptoms experienced by both post-hospitalised and non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients. These affect the respiratory system, the brain, cardiovascular system and heart, the kidneys, the gut, the liver and even skin. They can range in intensity and duration and do not necessarily present in a linear or sequential manner. ...