Study: One in eight recovered COVID-19 patients die within 5 months
Almost a third of recovered COVID-19 patients end up back in the hospital within five months, and up to one in eight die from complications from the disease, according to a report.
Researchers at the UK's University of Leicester and the Office for National Statistics found that of 47,780 people discharged from hospital, 29,4 percent returned within 140 days, the NYP reports.
Many people suffering from the long-term effects of coronavirus develop heart problems, diabetes and chronic liver and kidney problems, according to the report.
“People seem to be going home, getting long-term effects, coming back and dying. We see that almost 30 percent are back in the hospital, and that’s a lot of people. The numbers are so big,” said study author Kamlesh Khunti.
“The message here is that we really need to prepare for a long pandemic. It’s a task to follow these patients and the NHS is really stretched at the moment, but some kind of monitoring needs to be put in place,” added Khunti, a professor of primary care diabetes and vascular medicine at the University of Leicester.
The study, which Khunti described as the largest of people discharged from a hospital after being admitted with COVID-19, found that survivors were nearly 3 times more likely to be readmitted and die, at 140 days, than other outpatients.
Khunti said the researchers were surprised that so many people were readmitted with a new diagnosis, adding that it was important to make sure people were placed on protective therapy, including statins and aspirin.
"We don't know if it's because COVID destroyed the beta cells that produce insulin and you get Type 1 diabetes, or if it causes insulin resistance and you develop Type 2, but we're seeing these surprising new diagnoses of diabetes," he said.
"We've seen studies where survivors have had MRS scans and they have cardiac and liver problems. These people urgently require follow-up and need to be on things like aspirin and statins," Khunti added.
The new study was published in a health journal and has not yet been peer-reviewed.
