- The peak of the COVID-19 pandemic may be in the past but, for many people, its effects persist in the form of long COVID.
- With symptoms ranging from fatigue to digestive problems and brain fog, long COVID can have a profound impact on a person’s daily functioning.
- The cause is still unclear, but a new study has found a strong link between a disruption in iron levels during acute COVID-19 and long COVID.
- The researchers suggest this might indicate new avenues for preventing and treating long COVID.
As of mid-February this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) had recorded nearly 775 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide.
Infection with
However severe the initial infection, for some people COVID-19 leaves behind an unwelcome legacy —
These long COVID symptoms may include:
- tiredness or fatigue that interferes with daily life
- a worsening of symptoms after physical or mental effort (post-exertional malaise)
- breathlessness
- chest pain and heart palpitations
- brain fog
- sleep problems
- stomach pain and diarrhea.
The cause of long COVID is currently unknown, but new research, published in
Arturo Casadevall, the chair of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology and a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland who was not involved in this research, told Medical News Today:
“The paper reports altered iron metabolism in association with post-COVID sequelae (PASC) or long COVID, including low serum iron. As the authors note, the results are not surprising since long COVID is an inflammatory…
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