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Almost third of UK Covid hospital patients readmitted within four months

theguardian.com

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Re: Almost third of UK Covid hospital patients readmitted within four months

#41

Post by sprkwd »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #23
gxqoz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen some pushback that a lot of hard-to-diagnose chronic syndromes are now being deemed "long covid." My assumption is that at least some of this is happening as it's the trendiest disease of the moment. Not to say there aren't a lot of people with clear-cut long covid syndromes.

It looks like there's an overlap with post-viral syndromes and chronic fatigue syndrome, pointing to a common etiology under the hood.

It would be nice if this helped research in to chronic fatigue conditions.

Re: Almost third of UK Covid hospital patients readmitted within four months

#42

Post by [deleted] »

gxqoz wrote: post #21
Tarsul wrote: post #5

what I find to be even more astonishing: "and about one in eight had died", so 1/8 of those who were in hospital for covid AND discharged afterwards, died within 4 months. We also had another article in the guardian that said that 1 million of people in the UK suffer from long covid ("Symptoms vary but include fatigue, muscle pain and difficulty concentrating."): https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/01/long-c…

I've seen some pushback that a lot of hard-to-diagnose chronic syndromes are now being deemed "long covid." My assumption is that at least some of this is happening as it's the trendiest disease of the moment. Not to say there aren't a lot of people with clear-cut long covid syndromes.

[deleted]

Re: Almost third of UK Covid hospital patients readmitted within four months

#43

Post by jaybrendansmith »

Long Covid is real. I had a mild case back in August, but it took around 5 months to feel 'normal' again. Lots of inexplicable things: Minor heart palpitations, feeling of 'heaviness' behind my breastbone. When I exercised, even moderately like running a half mile, I would feel strangely exhausted for many hours later. All of this has gone away now, but I can easily see how someone who is hospitalized could have a relapse, either by overdoing it because they think they should be fully recovered, or through some other mysterious after-effect. Personally I believe it is caused by an immune system that is on 'high alert' after being attacked in every organ for multiple weeks (this is how Covid feels). It is logical to me that it might take multiple months for an immune system to gain back its equilibrium. Just guesses, I am not a doctor.

Re: Almost third of UK Covid hospital patients readmitted within four months

#45

Post by noir_lord »

galangalalgol wrote: post #37
howinteresting wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe, people have been dealing with post-viral syndromes for a long time, our society is completely unequipped to understand and deal with them, and they see post-COVID syndrome as finally a chance to address this. But taking that perspective requires correcting for the systematic underweighting of the testimonial evidence of patients of chronic illnesses. Less trendiness, more empathy, please.

A lot of post viral stuff seems to be autoimmune, and we don't treat autoimmune well. Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia weren't even recognized as real things not that long ago. Others like RA or Hashi's we suppress the immune system and/or rely entirely on simple tests to determine medication levels instead of relying on patient testamony and testing instead for over medication symptoms. These feedback loops are amaz…

I have chrohn's and the treatment for that is high dose steroids or chopping sections out.

Fortunately I'm on the mild end of the spectrum and flairs are infrequent but it'd be nice if we had something better to treat auto-immune disorders.

To control my chrohns I changed my diet by removing foods, keeping track of general well being for a few weeks then gradually introducing them to see what happened til I found a routine that worked, it's bland most of the time but I'll take the win - basically a Mediterranean diet which is fine.

There is however a bunch of things in the pipeline including things like targetted biologics to selectively target the immune system that are exciting.

Re: Almost third of UK Covid hospital patients readmitted within four months

#46

Post by incrudible »

nightpool wrote: post #28
peytn wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who’s even dipped a toe in this policy area can tell you that when old people and hospitals meet, gaudy statistics follow. It’s common knowledge in the field. To not include that context or any points of comparison seems irresponsible to me given the publicity.

The excerpt from the study quoted above says "Rate ratios were greater for individuals aged less than 70 ... with the largest differences seen for respiratory disease (10.5 (95% confidence interval 9.7 to 11.4) for age less than 70 years v 4.6 (4.3 to 4.8) for age ≥70)" Isn't that a clear indication that there's something besides "general trends in old people" going on here?

Age isn't the only factor, you need to control for underlying health conditions, which apparently they chose not to. Suppose you have COPD at age 50, for one you are less likely to live to 70, but also you are at a far greater risk with COVID. It would not be unexpected if such a person were readmitted to the hospital or die months later.

Re: Almost third of UK Covid hospital patients readmitted within four months

#47

Post by clairity »

nonameiguess wrote: post #34
gxqoz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen some pushback that a lot of hard-to-diagnose chronic syndromes are now being deemed "long covid." My assumption is that at least some of this is happening as it's the trendiest disease of the moment. Not to say there aren't a lot of people with clear-cut long covid syndromes.

Just to add to the post-viral syndrome chorus, this happened to me when I was 20. I caught what seemed like a pretty normal flu, but it eventually morphed into bronchitis and then pneumonia because I was an idiot who thought he was immortal and continued going out clubbing and staying out late with friends and it was four months before I finally saw a doctor and took the advice to rest and get blasted with high dose…

yes, what we're seeing is the frenzy around covid latching onto any and all related phenomena and pulling them into it's orbit. it's reasonable to study those phenomena for their relationship to a particular infection, but not to conclude that relationship based on merely studying it, as is happening here.

post-infection complications are not uncommon, although specifics certainly vary. i'd also had a long tail of recovery from a flu->bronchitis->pneumonia cascade a few years ago (on the order of many months, not years).

Re: Almost third of UK Covid hospital patients readmitted within four months

#48

Post by anoncake »

jaybrendansmith wrote: post #43

Long Covid is real. I had a mild case back in August, but it took around 5 months to feel 'normal' again. Lots of inexplicable things: Minor heart palpitations, feeling of 'heaviness' behind my breastbone. When I exercised, even moderately like running a half mile, I would feel strangely exhausted for many hours later. All of this has gone away now, but I can easily see how someone who is hospitalized could have a re…

> Long Covid is real.

But temporary -- and not all that long compared to the hell we've all had to endure for more than a year now -- except in extremely rare cases. Evidence to the contrary is welcome, after more than a year there should be some.

Re: Almost third of UK Covid hospital patients readmitted within four months

#49

Post by incrudible »

LatteLazy wrote: post #30

What's the usually figure for (1) patients of flu admitted to hospital, (2) patients of flu with this sort of age breakdown? Are their unusual or particular symptoms compared to other people with long term issues after viral infections? I full believe "long covid" is a thing. But so much of covid news has been shitty "studies" that get a lot of press despite shedding very little light and go on to be rapidly disprove…

Vitamin D supplementation has been "disproven" as an emergency treatment, not for prevention. I still think it's worthwhile, with or without COVID.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/02/study-confirm...

Re: Almost third of UK Covid hospital patients readmitted within four months

#50

Post by incrudible »

randomopining wrote: post #38

I had both vaccines shots and prob got covid last week. Had no nasal congestion, 100F low fever coming and going, little fatigue, night sweats. After I felt more normal, developed a little cough that I still have.

Those symptoms are consistent with the dozens of common cold viruses that haven't diseappeared. Consider that many people get COVID tests because they are symptomatic, yet most of them are negative.
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