But the study found little relationship between the severity of the acute phase, or levels of organ damage, and the severity of long COVID. The reality was more complicated. Three of the groups had mental-health and physical impairments to varying degrees, but few or no cognitive difficulties. The fourth cluster showed only moderate mental-health and physical impairments, but had pronounced cognitive problems.
She emphasizes that the study does not unpick the underlying mechanisms. Illnesses that linger after an infection have been reported in the scientific literature for years, says Anthony Komaroff, an internal-medicine physician at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. People with this debilitating illness become exhausted after even mild activity, alongside experiencing other symptoms such as headaches.
Some researchers are already planning to collaborate. That is a welcome first step, says Hastie, but few evidence-based treatments exist. There is a growing consensus that multidisciplinary teams are needed, because long COVID affects so many parts of the body.
Often the clinics do not have such teams. Much of the challenge will be social and political, because people with long COVID must rest, often for months at a time, and they need support while they do so.
People with long COVID are often left with respiratory difficulties, and some clinics are offering rehabilitation. In terms of medicines, a handful are being tested. Biotechnology company PureTech Health in Boston, Massachusetts, announced in December that it was starting a clinical trial of deupirfenidone, an anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory agent that it has developed. Results are expected in the second half of Participants who have been hospitalized with COVID will be given one of two drugs after being discharged: apixaban, an anticoagulant that might reduce the risk of dangerous blood clots; and atorvastatin, an anti-inflammatory.
Although many of them prevent death and severe illness, scientists do not yet know whether they prevent long COVID. Similarly, Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, is recruiting people with long COVID who have not been vaccinated, so she and her colleagues can track how their bodies react to the vaccine.
She hypothesizes that the vaccine might improve symptoms by eliminating any virus or viral remnants left in the body, or by rebalancing the immune system. Davis, H. Ziauddeen, N. Nalbandian, A. Nature Med. PubMed Article Google Scholar. Buonsenso, D. Acta Paediatr. Article Google Scholar. Sudre, C. Ayoubkhani, D. Gaebler, C. Nature , — Sun, B. Cells 10 , Hickie, I.
Komaroff, A. Available at go. Download references. News 11 NOV Career Guide 10 NOV Article 10 NOV News Explainer 10 NOV News 04 NOV News Feature 03 NOV Francis Crick Institute. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Advanced search. Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature. Illustration by Acapulco Studio. You have full access to this article via your institution. Download PDF. References 1. PubMed Article Google Scholar 4.
Article Google Scholar 5. If the virus mutates enough over time, vaccines might need to be updated to boost their effectiveness. So far, the vaccines appear protective against the notable variants that have emerged, though somewhat less so on the one first detected in South Africa. If it turns out we need another shot, a single dose could extend protection of the current shots or contain vaccination for one or more variants. The need for follow-up shots will also depend partly on the success of the vaccination push globally, and tamping down transmission of the virus and emerging variants.
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