Patients who survive severe Covid are twice as likely to die within the next year than those who are not infected or have experienced milder symptoms of the virus, a study says.
The research, published in Frontiers in Medicine , suggests that serious coronavirus infections can significantly impair long-term health, showing the importance of vaccination.
"We conducted a previous study which showed that patients ill with Covid and who experienced severe symptoms and recovered were at greater risk of being hospitalized in the next six months," said Prof. Arch Mainous from the University of Florida, lead author of the study.
The study found that patients who became seriously ill with coronavirus had a greater chance of dying over the next year, a trend that was particularly evident among those under the age of 65.
Most of the deaths that occurred in people who went through severe Covid symptoms were not related to the usual complications of the disease - 80% of such deaths occurred for a variety of reasons not usually related to the virus. This suggests that patients had an overall decline in health.
