IU survey: COVID-19 ‘long haulers’ live with symptoms for weeks, some for 100+ days
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — IU School of Medicine surveyed more than 1,500 people who said they suffer from long-term COVID symptoms for weeks or months.
Diana Berrent survived COVID-19 in March Months and is still dealing with some lingering symptoms.
“Four and a half months later, I’m still having major gastro issues,” said Berrent. “My sleep is really messed up.”
Across the nation, some COVID survivors have reported prolonged illness after their diagnosis. Experts are calling them “COVID long haulers.”
“We’re not talking about people who are hospitalized.” Berrent said. “These are young, healthy people who are marathon runners in their 20s, and they’re on Day 120 and they still can’t climb a flight of stairs. They are writing their living wills in their 20s. They are afraid they’re not going to see their wedding dates.”
The survey notes 98 different COVID symptoms, including difficulty concentrating, joint pain and extreme hair loss.
“Everyone can experience it quite differently,” said Dr. Natalie Lambert, associate research professor at IU School of Medicine. “But just to put this into perspective, the most-senior long haulers are people who contracted the disease in February or even January, and they’re still not well. We don’t know the bottom end of this yet.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says COVID-19 recovery can take a while, even in young adults with no chronic illnesses. One out of 5 previously healthy young adults weren’t back to usual health from 14-21 days after testing positive, according to the CDC.
“But other times they go to the doctor and the doctor says, ‘I think you’re just having anxiety. I don’t think this is COVID-related,” Lambert said. “What it really shows is that we need much more research, and we also, like the results of our study, we need to let physicians know that this is very real and that people need help.”
Berrent leads a group of thousands of COVID survivors called Survivor Corps and worked with Lambert on the study. They support scientific, medical and academic COVID research to find a cure.
Berrent encourages COVID survivors to donate plasma.
“Because inside the arm of every COVID-19 survivor, are the antibodies that will lead us to a cure,” Berrent said.
Dr. Lambert said several other COVID-19 research projects are happening at the IU School of Medicine and IU Health.