Post-COVID-19
A disease caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 can lead to very different and sometimes long-lasting symptoms and health consequences.
These are referred to by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "post-COVID-19 disease".
The terms "post-COVID-19 disease", "long-term COVID-19" or "long-term consequences of COVID-19" are used interchangeably. For the sake of simplicity, the term "post-COVID-19" is used below.
The WHO speaks of post-COVID-19 disease when
- there are symptoms three months after a confirmed or probable infection with the coronavirus
- the symptoms have persisted for at least two months and
- they cannot be explained by another diagnosis.
The following symptoms are common in post-COVID-19:
Excessive tiredness and fatigue, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties, impaired thinking, neurological disorders, headaches, coughing, loss of sense of smell and taste, insomnia, muscle fatigue / muscle pain, chest pain, skin rashes and discomfort after physical exertion.
The list is not exhaustive. The most common symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties as well as impaired mental performance and neurological disorders.
The severity and duration of the symptoms can vary greatly from person to person and fortunately in the vast majority of cases they subside over time.