Nearly one in five American adults who participated in a survey and who declared having suffered from Covid-19 in the past have persistent symptoms of coronavirus, according to data collected in the first two weeks of June, local health authorities reported Thursday.
Overall, an estimated 1 in 13 adults in the United States has symptoms of persistent Covid-19 that last three months or more after first contracting the illness, and that they did not have before infection, the data suggest.
The data was collected through an online questionnaire from June 1 to 13 and analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The symptoms of covid-19 Long-term symptoms range from fatigue, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, cognitive difficulties, chronic pain, sensory abnormalities, and muscle weakness. They can be debilitating and last for weeks or months after recovery from the initial infection.
The CDC analysis also found that younger adults were more likely to report persistent symptoms than older adults.
According to the study, women were also more likely to report prolonged symptoms of Covid-19than men, as 9.4% of adult women in the United States reported prolonged symptoms of Covid-19compared to 5.5% of men.
The survey found that nearly 9% of Hispanic adults stated Covid-19 long-term, more than non-Hispanic black and white adults, and more than twice the percentage of non-Hispanic Asian adults.
Among the limitations of the experimental survey, the CDC warns in the technical notes that the percentage of adults who report having ever had Covid-19 it is lower than estimates based on national seroprevalence studies. The survey is also based on online responses, and had a low response rate (6.2%).