Organ damage rates higher in Covid-19 survivors

This 69-year-old American woman still suffers from lingering effects of Covid-19 over a year after she was exposed to the coronavirus on March 23, 2020. — Reuters

People discharged from hospital after Covid-19 appear to have increased rates of organ damage, i.e. multiorgan dysfunction, compared with similar individuals in the general population, finds a study published by The BMJ on April 31 (2021).

The increase in risk was not confined to the elderly and was not uniform across ethnic groups, prompting the researchers to suggest that the long-term burden of Covid-19-related illness on hospitals and broader healthcare systems is likely to be substantial.