Long COVID Study Reveals Difference In Symptoms Based On Severity Of First Infection

A new study finds the severity of what's known as long-Covid, now occurring in about one-third of survivors, depends on the initial illness.

Three years since her initial Covid-19 infection, Sara Buursma still has lingering symptoms.

"Sometimes things don't smell at all or taste at all. And sometimes there's things that I'm smelling that aren't even there," Buursma said.

The mom of three also has bouts of fatigue and is more prone to respiratory illness.

"I just have to watch it and be very careful and treat myself a different way than I used to," Buursma said.

Researchers at the Northwestern Medicine Neuro Covid-19 Clinic followed 600 so-called “long-haulers.” They found that symptoms differ depending on the severity of the patients' Covid infection, and whether they were hospitalized.

"We saw that those patients that were previously hospitalized with severe pneumonia performed worse in tasks of processing speed, attention and working memory than those who were never hospitalized," said Dr. Igor Koralnik, Chief of Neuroinfectious Diseases at Northwestern Medicine.

81% of the patients in the study experienced brain fog, 70% had headaches, and more than half lost their sense of taste and smell. Other long-covid symptoms included dizziness, insomnia and depression or anxiety.

Doctors are still trying to determine the cause of long-Covid.

"Patients who were sick with pneumonia may have incurred brain damage during their acute illness," Koralnik said. "In younger patients... we think that is more likely a new auto-immune syndrome," Koralnik said.

Buursma trained and ran in the Chicago Marathon last year, but believes her long-Covid is here for the long run.

"I, at this point, feel like what I have is not going to go away," Buursma said.

But she says she is grateful to feel mostly back to herself and has a new perspective on her health.