Long-lasting colds can exist in the same way that a long-lasting covid exists in situations where people have symptoms that do not go away after the initial infection, a study from the United Kingdom has shown.
Common symptoms of a lingering cold are cough, stomach ache and diarrhea.
Additional research is needed to see who is at risk of developing a long-term cold, how dangerous it can be and what can be done about it, experts say.
- Which door to knock on with symptoms and what are the new recommendations for covid-19
- Nobel prize for medicine to scientists for mRNA vaccine against covid-19
- What is the nipa virus India is fighting against
The claim that respiratory viruses, i.e. any viral infection, can cause a long-term illness is not new, but the covid pandemic has caused renewed attention to this phenomenon.
The researchers behind the new study say the results confirm the experiences of patients with long-term colds.
"People can really feel very bad after the virus.
"It's not about their imagination, but about something that really exists," Professor Adrian Martino from Queen Mary University of London told the BBC.
In the study, which was published in the Lancet's journal Clinical Medicine, participants reported respiratory illnesses and other symptoms they had during the first two months of 2021, when the covid pandemic was entering its second year and vaccines began to be administered.
None of the participants received the covid vaccine.
Of the 10.171 participants in the study, 1.343 said they had recently had Covid, and 472 said they had another respiratory virus, such as the flu or a cold.
Not everyone who recovered from the disease had new or long-term symptoms.
However, people who suffered from covid, flu or a cold several weeks earlier were more likely to have certain symptoms a month or more after the illness compared to those who had not recently had a respiratory illness.
The symptoms were:
- diarrhea
- stomach problems
- pain in muscles and joints
- sleep problems
- memory and concentration problems
- dizziness and fainting
- a cough
People who had covid more often reported problems with smell and taste, fog in the head, fainting, sweating compared to people who had long-term symptoms after a cold or flu.
Fatigue after a viral infection and other symptoms can affect people of all ages.
Based on the severity of the initial infection, the risk cannot be predicted - some people may be very unwell at the beginning and then recover relatively quickly, while others may have a mild clinical picture at the beginning and then develop severe symptoms that last for a long time.
Lead researcher Julia Vivaldi from Queen Mary University in London said that the research illuminates not only the consequences of covid but also other respiratory infections.
The lack of awareness about this, even the lack of a common name, stands in the way of reporting and discovering these conditions, she added.
"While research on long-term covid is ongoing, we need to take the opportunity to investigate and understand the lasting effects of other acute respiratory infections.
"These long-term infections are difficult to detect and treat, primarily due to the lack of diagnostic tests and due to the large number of possible symptoms. More than 200 symptoms have been discovered for long-term covid alone."
Data from the Bureau of Statistics show that about 1,9 million people in the UK, which is about three percent of the population, had long-term covid this spring.
However, it is difficult to know exactly how many people have gone through prolonged covid.
Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said this study is important because it shows that recovery from a respiratory infection can be slow regardless of the cause.
"People should expect that they will slowly return to normal and not that they can immediately return to all their activities," he said.
He warned that the name "long-term cold" should not diminish the seriousness of the very severe symptoms that someone with long-term covid can have.
"This study confirms that long-term symptoms are common not only after covid but also after common respiratory infections," said Paul Harrison, professor of psychiatry at Oxford.
Watch a video about long-term covid:
Follow us on Facebook,Twitter i Viber. If you have a topic proposal for us, contact us at bbcnasrpskom@bbc.co.uk
Bonus video:
