What are the persistent symptoms of Covid-19?

Audio 03:51

By: Simon Rozé Follow

It has now been more than six months since the coronavirus responsible for the Covid-19 epidemic was discovered, but there are still many unknowns about this disease. As more and more former patients come out of hospitals cured, some still suffer from symptoms, sometimes several weeks later.

Publicity

Breathing difficulties, extreme fatigue, tachycardia ... More and more testimonies are flocking; those of former Covid-19 patients still suffering from various symptoms several dozen days later. The occurrence of such delayed symptoms is not unusual after a viral infection. However, the Covid-19 is still little known, it is a question of knowing what we are dealing with.

Many hospitals have thus set up structures for monitoring patients once they return home. " This will spread over a minimum of six months, with a point one month after the onset of symptoms, three and six months later, " explains Professor Olivier Bouchaud, head of the infectious diseases department at the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny (AP -HP). " Our primary goal is to look for lung damage in people who have needed relatively large amounts of oxygen ." Doctors fear the occurrence of pulmonary fibrosis, caused by inflammation due to the disease. These follow-up consultations also made it possible to identify other persistent symptoms: “ The most common is fatigue. We also see patients who say they still have the loss of smell, others who have not completely regained the sensation of taste. A number of patients also complain of persistent coughing or difficulty breathing. Finally, some complain of the appearance of skin manifestations, small pimples. "

In itself, the existence of these symptoms at a distance is something classic. However, their specificity must be studied in the context of the Covid-19 and what they mean. " We must be careful in explaining these symptoms ," explains Olivier Bouchaud. By definition, the long-term course of this Covid-19 infection is unknown. A distinction must be made between manifestations which may be linked to the inflammatory or scarring consequences of the infection, such as pulmonary fibrosis. But for fatigue, for example, it will be very difficult to make a distinction between a post-infectious syndrome directly linked to the trace that the virus can leave in the body and a manifestation that would be purely psychological ”.

Indeed, the fight against the disease could be very violent for certain patients who saw themselves die. This leaves traces, which can cause real physical problems. “ You can see these manifestations after mental trauma, such as after the attacks. These are mechanisms that we know well after patients have been subjected to violent assaults. In the context of Covid-19, hospitalized in the context of a new infection, some patients admitted to intensive care may have felt that they were at the end of their lives because they were so embarrassed to breathe. This may explain this psycho-trauma and its consequences. "

By definition, we don't know how long these symptoms will last. We are however beginning to have an idea of ​​their frequency. One of the objectives of these monitoring systems, with which city doctors are associated, is to determine the share of infected people who today suffer from these offbeat symptoms. The first observations are reassuring, since it appears that only a minority of patients, among those who have developed the most serious forms, suffer the consequences. Who also have to face a work of rehabilitation which begins now, as their organism has been subjected to severe test.

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Coronavirus
• Confinement
• France
• Health and Medicine