Over 40 per cent of people who recovered from Covid-19 are still having post-Covid symptoms and many are reporting newer symptoms like insomnia and neuropsychiatric issues, revealed a pan-India survey by AIG Hospital.
As India crosses 3 crore Covid recoveries, the incidence of post-Covid symptoms is noticeably increasing across the country.
Over 40 per cent of Covid-recovered patients said that they are still having symptoms, out of which weakness/fatigue was reported the maximum. Many patients also reported newer symptoms like insomnia and neuropsychiatric issues among others.
“We were seeing many such post-Covid patients in our hospital, but this survey gave us the true picture of this post-Covid Syndrome. If this is an indication to go by then we are looking at over 1 crore people in India who have recovered from Covid-19 but are still having certain symptoms,” said Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman, AIG Hospitals.
The survey also revealed that 74 per cent of hospitalised patients during their Covid-19 treatment received steroids but 34 per cent required oxygen. “We believe there is some correlation between irrational use of steroids and post-Covid complications because as per the guidelines we are supposed to give steroids to only those Covid patients who require oxygen,” he said while calling for further research in this regard.
Looking at the urgent need to address the issue of post-Covid complications, AIG Hospitals announced the launch of India’s first dedicated post-Covid Care Clinic. The clinic will comprise a multidisciplinary team with experts from Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Neurology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, Psychiatry, Orthopedics, among others providing comprehensive care. The objective is to evaluate and manage these patients from a holistic point of view.
The findings of the AIG Covid Survey are now being published as a research report currently available as a pre-print.
“It is commendable on part of AIG Hospitals to come up with such an initiative, a first-of-its-kind dedicated Post-Covid Care Clinic so early and showing the way ahead in managing these post-Covid cases. It will be important to see what newer protocols will be required for these patients and it is our cumulative responsibility to help in this regard,” said Narsing Rao, Principal Secretary to the Telangana Chief Minister.