New Delhi, May 13 || Reinfections with SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind Covid-19, is less likely to cause long Covid -- a condition that affects at least 65 million people worldwide, according to a study.
Long Covid affects people after an infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The condition is not properly defined yet presents more than 200 symptoms. Long Covid risk and severity is known to compromise self-rated health, physical capacity, and cognitive function.
The preprint study, not peer-reviewed yet, showed that the risk of Long Covid was 6 per cent after reinfections from Covid virus compared to 15 per cent after the initial infection.
Fatigue, shortness of breath, neurocognitive symptoms, post-exertional malaise, and smell or taste disturbances were the most reported common symptoms among people with long Covid.
"Severe symptoms were reported 5 to 22 times more often by long Covid cases than by Covid controls, except for fever, cough, insomnia, anxiety, and depression (2.7 to 4.5 times)," said the Laval University in Quebec, Canada.
The study is based on 22,496 online survey participants and 3,978 telephone survey participants.