SOCIO-EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PROFILE AND EFFECTS OF LONG-COVID-19 ON POST-PANDEMIC PATIENTS FROM SOUTHERN BRAZIL

Resumo

COVID-19 has been the biggest public health problem worldwide. Several people were infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, developing or not the related symptoms. Among the COVID-19 symptoms, many subjects had fever, cough, muscle pain, headache, loss of taste, loss of smell, among others, while some individuals presented more complex symptoms, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome. Still today there is no specific treatment against COVID-19. Although many pharmacological protocols were tried, including for example antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. Most of the infected subjects recovered from the disease, however, several patients still have some persistent symptoms, characterizing the so-called long-COVID-19. The objective of this study was to identify socio-epidemiological profile and effects of long-COVID-19 on post-pandemic patients. For this, a questionnaire of self-report was applied for 74 patients who recovered from COVID-19. This instrument of data collection included questions regarding socioeconomic aspects, symptoms during the disease, previous health history, use of medication before, during and after COVID-19, vaccination, use of legal and illegal drugs, physical activities, and sequelae and persistent symptoms. It was found that most of the volunteers were female and were about 31-50 years old. Also, most of the patients did not use the hospitalization services. Several patients self-reported the presence of some comorbidities prior to the infection, such as metabolic diseases. The majority had mild symptoms, such as headache and dysgeusia. Interestingly, 69% of the participants reported presenting persistent symptoms after recovering from COVID-19, mainly memory loss, hair loss and fatigue. About 13% reported symptoms related to cognitive impairments. This study shows the importance of continuing the scientific investigations in the present, especially considering the long-COVID-19 for the public health agencies and governments to be able to plan potential actions for the affected patients.