Photo/Illutration The health ministry’s guidelines to diagnose COVID-19 aftereffects (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

One in four people in Japan who contracted COVID-19 still suffered from side effects 18 months after their infection was confirmed, researchers found.

A study of 1,148 individuals aged 20 to 70 who were infected between February 2020 and November 2021 found that many former patients were affected mildly at the onset of the disease but became aware of lingering symptoms afterward.

The findings by the Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine underscore the fact that health problems can persist long after a person has caught the virus.

Shinichiro Morioka, a physician at the hospital who is part of the research team, noted that the novel coronavirus was downgraded May 8 to category 5 under the infectious disease prevention law “meaning that special attention will no longer be paid to the disease.”

However, he said the emergence of symptoms after the onset of the infection may suggest “it still continues to require special care.”

Of the 1,148 who were surveyed in the study, 502 responded to an online or paper questionnaire in March 2022. Those mildly affected accounted for 393, or 78.3 percent of those who responded.

It emerged that as many as 212 people experienced aftereffects for two months or longer within three months of contracting COVID-19.

The problems included lower levels of concentration at 20.1 percent and reduced olfactory sense, also at 20.1 percent.

Former patients who reported they felt groggy, experienced memory loss or suffered from chronic fatigue or depression accounted for 17.8 percent, 16.4 percent, 15.4 percent and 13.9 percent, respectively.

Respondents troubled by those issues one year later made up 30.5 percent. The ratio came to 25.8 percent one and a half years after their infection was confirmed.

A reduced sense of smell and hair loss were apt to remain longer for women.

Morioka noted that the aftereffects of the virus emerge in various forms and can exert a significant impact on a person’s appearance and social activities.

“Post-infection symptoms need to be addressed more broadly to provide a wider range of means to embrace such patients,” he said.

The findings also indicated that administering antiviral drugs such as PaxlovidPACK and Xocova orally to patients in the acute stage of infection may help to suppress their otherwise lingering condition.

The findings were published in the international journal Public Health at (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2023.01.008).

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