New federal data shows millions of Americans say they’ve had the coronavirus for a long time and some say they’re still battling it.
Two new reports released early Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics examine data from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey.
According to the magazine, as of 2022, 6.9% of adults (equivalent to about 18 million Americans) have had a long-term COVID-19 infection, while 3.4% (about 8.8 million people) are currently infected with COVID-19. It was revealed that the patient had responded that he had contracted a viral infection. 2022 US Census Estimates.
Meanwhile, 1.5% of children (about 1 million Americans) have previously had a long-term COVID-19 infection, and 0.5% (about 360,000 children) currently have a long-term COVID-19 infection. reported to be suffering from.
Long-term coronavirus is a condition that occurs when a patient remains symptomatic at least four weeks after clearing the infection. In some cases, symptoms can last for months or years.
Symptoms vary and include fatigue, difficulty breathing, headaches, brain fog, joint pain, muscle pain, and persistent loss of taste and smell. CDC.
It’s unclear what causes people to develop long-term coronavirus infections; research is ongoing.
In the first report, the NCHS team looked at adults and found that women were more likely than men to have previously been infected with the coronavirus or currently have a long-term infection.
According to the report, 2.3% of men said they had been sick with the coronavirus for a long time, while 4.4% of women, almost twice as many, said they had been ill for a long time.
In terms of age, adults aged 35 to 49 are most likely to have had or are currently infected with the coronavirus for a long time at some point, followed by people aged 50 to 64. Ta. Older people aged 65 and older were least likely to be infected. in both categories.
Among racial and ethnic groups, Hispanic adults are most likely to have had a long-term infection with COVID-19 at 8.3%, followed by white adults at 7.1%, black adults at 5.4%, and Asian adults at 8.3%. It was 2.6%.
However, among people currently experiencing prolonged COVID-19 infection, white adults slightly outnumbered Hispanic adults at 3.7% and 3.4%.
The second report looked at children under 17, but many of the findings were similar. For example, girls were more likely than boys to have had a previous or ongoing long-term infection with the coronavirus.
Additionally, Hispanic children had the highest rates of reporting previous long-term COVID-19 cases, and white children had the highest rates of reporting current long-term COVID-19 cases.
By age group, children aged 12 to 17 were most likely to have had or currently have a long-term infection with the coronavirus, at 2.0% and 0.8% respectively. Ta.
Meanwhile, 1.0% of children aged 8 and under and 0.8% of those aged 8 to 11 reported having long-term COVID-19 infection at some point, compared with 0.2% of the youngest group and 0.2% of those in the middle group. 0.3% of people reported currently having long-term COVID-19 infection.
“Although the proportion of children with current long-term COVID-19 infection was lower, the differences observed by age remained present,” the authors wrote.
The report cites data from a national commercial laboratory seroprevalence survey showing that about 92% of children now have antibodies in their blood samples, which indicate past infection, but , states that it is extremely rare for children to be infected with the new coronavirus for such a long period of time.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration announced the creation of a new Office of Coronavirus Long-Term Research and Practice to study the condition and help people diagnosed with the infection.
The agency, which falls under the Department of Health and Human Services, is “responsible for continuing to coordinate the whole-of-government response to the long-term effects of COVID-19,” the report said. news release.
