コロナ後遺症の現状と課題

Patients often report various symptoms after recovery from acute COVID-19. These symptoms are called Long COVID. Although coronaviruses have been mutated and changes in infectivity have been noted, there have been no reports of differences in symptoms of Long COVID between strains of coronaviruses. In order to examine the differences in sequelae caused by different viral strains, we examined the age, sex, and symptoms of patients who visited the outpatient clinic of Hakuai Memorial Hospital from July 2021 to October 2022, and classified these patients into three periods（Period I : July to December, Period II : January to May, and Period III : June to October）. month） Period I corresponded to the pre-Delta strain, Period II to the Omicron strain, and Period III to the subtype.
There were 401 patients, 45 in stage I（21 males, 24 females, average age of 41 years）, 178 in stage II（70 males, 108 females, average age 42.7 years）, and 178 in stage III（74 males, 104 females, average age 42.8 years）. Women tended to be more numerous than men. Most of the patients had been vaccinated, and 22 had not been vaccinated. The place of care after the diagnosis of COVID infection was examined, and 42％ of the inpatients were hospitalized in Period I, while most patients in Periods II and III recuperated at home or in hotels. The age distribution of the patients showed that most of them were between 30 and 70 years old, indicating a trend toward middle-aged and older persons. This trend was the same for all stages from stage I to stage III. Their symptoms are very varied. Patients with cough, phlegm, and pharyngeal discomfort being more common in stage II and stage III. while olfactory and respiratory disturbances were more common in stage I. Long-term patients were mostly malaise and memory impairment, and many of them were mild cases at the onset of the disease.
Symptoms of the patients were often related to various medical departments, and it was considered important to collaborate with them. It is also important to avoid infection because sequelae can develop even in those with mild symptoms.