One third of patients hospitalised with severe COVID-19 still have lung changes after a year.

[2greys]

A new study has shown that most patients discharged from hospital after experiencing severe COVID-19 infection appear to return to full health, although up to a third do still have evidence of effects upon the lungs one year on.

COVID-19 has infected millions of people worldwide. People are most commonly hospitalised for COVID-19 infection when it affects the lungs – termed COVID-19 pneumonia. Whilst significant progress has been made in understanding and treating acute COVID-19 pneumonia, very little is understood about how long it takes for patients to fully recover and whether changes within the lungs persist.

In this new study, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, researchers from the University of Southampton worked with collaborators in Wuhan, China, to investigate the natural history of recovery from severe COVID-19 pneumonia up to one year after hospitalisation.

southampton.ac.uk/news/2021...

The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Study Paper:

thelancet.com/journals/lanr...

[Alberta56]

I hope that continuous monitoring will enable them to help people with long covid. Being selfish, such research might even bring benefits to lungies.

[Annie31 in reply to Alberta56]

I don't think you're being selfish in thinking that! As far as I am concerned the longer the scientists are occupied in researching the effects of covid and long covid, the more likely they are to uncover helpful information on known lung diseases whether by accident or design!

[Badbessie]

A couple of younger people I know had problems following covid pneumonia which appeared to get better. However, scans showed damage. My main worry it that as they get older the damage done now may come to bite them in later years. They are both in their early forties and I wonder if in twenty years that mild lung damage may come to haunt them?