| About 1 in 5 US adults have health problems from Covid that stick around long after they first test positive, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published this week.
Experts from the CDC detailed how, after an initial bout of Covid, a growing number of people age 18 and older continued to report symptoms that may be caused by the virus. The agency used electronic health records from March 2020 through November 2021 to analyze patients who reported certain symptoms one month to a year after having Covid.
And as Covid cases continue to increase in some parts of the US, including several regions that now fall into the CDC's "high risk" category, the number of people with long Covid is likely to only increase, the report notes. The study didn't assess the incidence of post-Covid symptoms in kids, an estimated half a million of whom are also suffering from lasting health problems and who can be harder to diagnose than adults.  Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Photographer: Lauren Justice/Bloomberg For the 20% of adults whose symptoms can last weeks to months after a positive Covid test, researchers said the most common conditions were respiratory problems and muscle or joint pain. There was also a notable risk of pulmonary embolism, a blood clot that can travel to the lungs, among the patients included in the study. But people suffering from long Covid can have very different symptoms, too. In the study, just 26 conditions associated with long Covid were considered, but there have been over 200 different symptoms reported after Covid, ranging from neurological to cardiovascular.
Researchers also noted that symptoms were more likely to appear based on age. In the study, adults under 65 more frequently experienced an irregular heartbeat and muscle pain, while those older than 65 had a higher risk of kidney failure, blood clots, muscle disorders, type 2 diabetes and mental health problems. Almost half of those older adults also had neurocognitive issues, the study says.
The findings, health officials say, are consistent with other studies that estimate about 20% to 30% of people develop long Covid and can help increase awareness of the condition, as well as treatment. But more research is still needed to determine what makes certain people more vulnerable to developing long Covid, the report says.
More resources are being devoted to studying long Covid now than earlier in the pandemic, and some progress is finally being made in treating certain symptoms. But still, experts remain largely in the dark about what causes it. — Madison Muller | 
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