Long-term infection with Covid... A simple blood test is "very important"

 A recent medical study has found that a blood test performed while people are infected with Covid-19 can predict whether they are likely to develop long-term health problems later. Researchers at University College London compared levels of more than 90 blood proteins in 54 health care workers with coronavirus, with another group of healthy employees.

In the study, published in The Lancet, the researchers found that many proteins were significantly disrupted for up to 6 weeks, even in those with mild symptoms. The researchers predicted that 20 of those infected with Covid-19 would suffer from persistent symptoms a year after being infected with the virus, and the causes were linked to anti-clotting and inflammatory processes, according to “Sky News”.

The researchers then used an artificial intelligence algorithm to scan for proteins in blood samples, and succeeded in identifying 11 infected health workers, who had developed symptoms of Covid-19 for a long time.

Commenting on the results of the study, Wendy Heywood, a senior researcher from the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health at the University of California, said: “If we can identify people who are likely to develop long-term symptoms of corona, this opens the door to trying treatments such as anti-viral drugs. For viruses earlier, and assess the stage of infection, to see if it can reduce the risk of infection with the virus for a long time later."

For his part, Kevin McConway, Professor Emeritus of Applied Statistics, stressed the need to expand the sample that was studied in order to reach more comprehensive and accurate results, in addition to the need to include coronavirus-specific variables in relevant future research.