While most people with COVID-19 recover and return to normal health within a week or two, some patients have symptoms that last for weeks or even months. Even people who aren’t hospitalized and who have mild illness can experience persistent or late symptoms. The CDC is carefully monitoring the short- and long-term effects of the disease, and research at Intermountain has led to a clinical guideline for the treatment of “long COVID-19.” Patients who experience lingering systems should follow up with their primary care physician or APP.
About 10 percent or more of COVID-19 patients experience symptoms lasting longer than the expected timeframe of 14 days, some for much longer. “Some patients suffer from COVID-19 symptoms for months,” Dixie Harris, MD, a pulmonologist at Alta View Medical Specialty Clinic, recently told ABC4 News.
Dr. Harris has seen patients with a lingering cough, shortness of breath, palpitations/racing heart, headaches, and extreme fatigue. She’s seen these persistent symptoms in both the old and the young, healthy and chronically ill. Fortunately, according to Dr. Harris, these symptoms do appear to resolve over time.
Patients with lingering COVID-19 symptoms are commonly called “long-haulers.” The medical community uses the term “post-acute COVID-19” to describe symptoms that persist longer than three weeks after initial onset and the term “chronic, or long COVID-19” for symptoms lasting more than 12 weeks. The most common lingering symptoms are fatigue, fever, cough, shortness of breath, joint or chest pain, loss of smell, headache, decreased memory, brain fog, racing heart, and depression. Infrequently, chronic COVID-19 patients can have serious problems such as pulmonary embolism (clogging of a pulmonary artery) and myocarditis (heart inflammation).
Intermountain has implemented a clinical guideline for Post-Acute and Chronic COVID-19 in primary care. The guideline contains a symptom comparison chart and helpful information for treating patients with these lingering symptoms, and additional support resources.