(The Center Square) — More than 1.1 million Illinoisans have tested positive for the COVID-19, and it is clear that not everyone is fully recovered from the virus.
In fact, some people who initially experienced mild infections were affected by symptoms months after the virus had gone away.
New data analysis compiled information from so-called “long haulers” and ranks 48 most common symptoms.
Dr. Brittany Busse of WorkCare said the loss of taste and smell is common with many people.
“Some people have that for months even, and it could actually reoccur later on so even if you didn’t lose your taste and smell initially, that could come back,” Busse said.
A new survey from the United Kingdom discovered that people infected with the UK variant were less likely to lose their taste and smell compared to those with the normal variant. There have been at least 9 cases of the UK variant in Illinois.
Fatigue is the most common symptom of long and acute COVID-19, experienced by 58% of long haulers in the research. The symptoms observed in post-COVID-19 patients resemble chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which includes the presence of severe incapacitating fatigue, pain, following minor increases in physical and/or cognitive activity.
Headache was the most common neuropsychiatric symptom, reported by 44% of long haulers. Researchers wrote this could be related to “the direct effect of the infection, cerebrovascular disease, physiological compromise, side effects of medications, and social aspects of having a potentially fatal illness.”
The remaining most prevalent symptoms that appear in the top ten include attention disorder, hair loss, shortness of breath, post-activity polypnea, joint pain and cough.
Other symptoms experienced by long haulers include sleep apnea, red eyes, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and paranoia.
If that wasn’t bad enough, now there may be another addition to the growing list of strange possible symptoms of the coronavirus: COVID tongue.
A British researcher tracking COVID-19 warning signs is reporting more cases of infected people complaining of tongue discoloration, enlargement and other mouth problems.
